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 figuring out when it's a good idea to plant dusty miller is to look at the USDA zone info for Cicero.

Planting Calendar for Dusty Miller

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

Dusty Miller do ok in a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant dusty miller in Cicero 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 dusty miller and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your dusty miller may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your dusty miller indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Cicero. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Cicero is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Cicero there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your dusty miller in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cicero

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 Cicero

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