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.

The USDA zone info for South Bend can be read to determine when it's a good idea to plant sweet williams.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Williams

Frost tolerance for sweet williams:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Sweet Williams do well in moderate cold which means that you can start planting them earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant sweet williams in South Bend 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 sweet williams and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your sweet williams may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sweet williams indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in South Bend. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for South Bend and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in South Bend last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your sweet williams in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for South Bend

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in South Bend

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South Bend.