One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant common hollyhock in West Chicago should be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Common hollyhock

Frost tolerance for common hollyhock:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant common hollyhock a little bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant common hollyhock in West Chicago is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant common hollyhock and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your common hollyhock may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your common hollyhock indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in West Chicago. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for West Chicago is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in West Chicago last frost occurs after April 15 so always be ready to protect your common hollyhock if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for West Chicago

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in West Chicago

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Chicago.