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 estimating when to plant ornamental grasses is to refer to the USDA zone info for Cicero.

Planting Calendar for Ornamental Grasses

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

Ornamental Grasses can survive in a tiny bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant ornamental grasses in Cicero 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 ornamental grasses and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your ornamental grasses may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your ornamental grasses indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Cicero. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Cicero is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Cicero it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your ornamental grasses 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.