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 Rockford you can estimate when it's possible to plant aurinia by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Aurinia

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

Aurinia tend to make it in cold weather which tells us that you can plant them much earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant aurinia in Rockford 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 aurinia and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your aurinia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your aurinia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Rockford is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Rockford you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your aurinia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rockford

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 Rockford

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