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 Elgin you can figure out when you can plant scarlet pimpernels by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Scarlet Pimpernels

Frost tolerance for scarlet pimpernels:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since scarlet pimpernels are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant scarlet pimpernels in Elgin is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant scarlet pimpernels and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your scarlet pimpernels may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your scarlet pimpernels indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Elgin. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Elgin may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Elgin it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to cover your scarlet pimpernels if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elgin

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Elgin

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