One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Cicero you can determine when it's a good idea to plant tithonia by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Tithonia

Frost tolerance for tithonia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's a bad idea to plant tithonia until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant tithonia in Cicero is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant tithonia and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your tithonia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your tithonia 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.

Since the USDA zone info for Cicero is an average 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 cover your tithonia in the event of a surprise 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.