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 sweet williams in West Chicago should be determined by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Williams

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

Since sweet williams are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant sweet williams 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 sweet williams and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your sweet williams may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your sweet williams indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few 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.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for West Chicago and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in West Chicago it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your sweet williams in the event of 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.