The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's a good idea to plant catharanthus is to examine the USDA zone info for Aurora.

Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

Frost tolerance for catharanthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You can not plant catharanthus until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant catharanthus in Aurora 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 catharanthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your catharanthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your catharanthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Aurora. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Aurora and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Aurora it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your catharanthus if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Aurora

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Aurora

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