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

A common way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant pampas grass is to refer to the USDA zone info for Evanston.

Planting Calendar for Pampas Grass

Frost tolerance for pampas grass:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You should not plant pampas grass until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant pampas grass in Evanston 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 pampas grass and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your pampas grass may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pampas grass indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Evanston. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Evanston and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Evanston last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your pampas grass if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Evanston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Evanston

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