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.

A way of estimating when to plant fanflower is to check out the USDA zone info for East Chicago.

Planting Calendar for Fanflower

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

It's a bad idea to plant fanflower until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant fanflower in East Chicago 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 fanflower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your fanflower may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your fanflower indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In East Chicago the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for East Chicago is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in East Chicago there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your fanflower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for East Chicago

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 East Chicago

You may be interested in your other planting guides for East Chicago.