One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant red hot pokers is to examine the USDA zone info for Evanston.

Planting Calendar for Red Hot Pokers

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

You can plant red hot pokers much earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant red hot pokers in Evanston 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 red hot pokers and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your red hot pokers may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your red hot pokers 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 Evanston. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Evanston is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Evanston you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your red hot pokers in the event of 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.