When to Plant Lavender Cotton in Zion, IL

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant lavender cotton is to consult the USDA zone info for Zion.


Planting Calendar for Lavender Cotton

Frost tolerance for lavender cotton: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Lavender Cotton are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted much earlier than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant lavender cotton
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant lavender cotton
Probably not a good time to plant lavender cotton

The earliest that you can plant lavender cotton in Zion 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 lavender cotton and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lavender cotton may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your lavender cotton indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Zion the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Zion and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Zion there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your lavender cotton if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zion

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 Zion

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