When to Plant Bleeding Hearts in Winthrop Harbor, IL

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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Winthrop Harbor it's possible to figure out when it's possible to plant bleeding hearts.


Planting Calendar for Bleeding Hearts

Frost tolerance for bleeding hearts: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since bleeding hearts are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant bleeding hearts
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant bleeding hearts
Probably not a good time to plant bleeding hearts

The earliest that you can plant bleeding hearts in Winthrop Harbor is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant bleeding hearts and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your bleeding hearts may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your bleeding hearts indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Winthrop Harbor. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Winthrop Harbor may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Winthrop Harbor last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your bleeding hearts in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Winthrop Harbor

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 Winthrop Harbor

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Winthrop Harbor.