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.

A way of determining when you can plant delphinium is to look at the USDA zone info for Wood Dale.

Planting Calendar for Delphinium

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

Delphinium do well in a tiny bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant delphinium in Wood Dale 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 delphinium and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your delphinium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your delphinium indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Wood Dale. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Wood Dale and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Wood Dale you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your delphinium if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Wood Dale

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 Wood Dale

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Wood Dale.