One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

One way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant ageratum is to consult the USDA zone info for Wilmette.

Planting Calendar for Ageratum

Frost tolerance for ageratum:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant ageratum until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant ageratum in Wilmette is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant ageratum and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your ageratum may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your ageratum indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Wilmette. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Wilmette and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Wilmette there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your ageratum in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Wilmette

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 Wilmette

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Wilmette.