One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant alyssum is to look at the USDA zone info for Wheeling.

Planting Calendar for Alyssum

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

You can plant alyssum quite a bit earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant alyssum in Wheeling 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 alyssum and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your alyssum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your alyssum indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Wheeling is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Wheeling you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your alyssum in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Wheeling

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 Wheeling

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