Get an early start with cold-loving plants
Q. Which plants love the cold?
A. Make no mistake: plants are hardly passive. They make clear demands about the weather conditions they require.
Cold season plants thrive in our temperate Zone 5b during spring, fall and winter, and fade during the hot days of summer, some returning when the weather cools in the fall. The two major garden plant categories are "ornamentals" (native grasses, peonies, pansies or roses), and "food crops" (cabbage, potatoes, and beans). Ornamental plants are, however, not merely ornamental; they provide food, shelter and reproductive places for pollinators (birds, bees, butterflies and other insects). And, importantly, the food we eat is dependent on these pollinators doing the critical work of transporting essential materials, like seeds and pollen.
Some popular cool season ornamentals for the Chicago area include:
Pansies: Colorful, showy, fragrant flowers that bloom April to June. Height, 6-9 inches. Start from seed or purchase in cell packs. Grow full sun to part shade.
Snapdragons: Pastel and bright colored flowers bloom April to frost. Height, 1-3 inches. Start from seed six-10 weeks before last frost date or buy starter plants. Grow in full sun.
Sweet alyssum: Exceptionally floriferous with tiny white, blue, rose or bicolored blooms. Fragrant. Height 4-6 inches. Grow in full sun.
Winter aconite: Bright yellow cuplike blooms flower March to April. Tubers should be planted 2-3 inches deep and 3 inches apart in late summer to early fall; will naturalize. Full sun to part shade.
Hellebore or Lenten rose: White to pink to light rose cup-shaped flowers bloom from late winter to spring for eight-week period. Height, 1 to 1½ inches. Self-seeding and clump forming. Grow part shade to full shade.
Common witch hazel: Yellow with orange or red blossoms that bloom October to December. Native shrub grows 15-20 inches. Tolerates clay soil. Full sun to part shade.
Some cool season vegetables are best started indoors from seed (who said gardening must be outdoors?) 6-8 weeks before last frost date in early May, then transplanted outdoors. Others can be sown in the garden by direct seed in early May. Alternatively, all can be purchased as starter plants:
Cabbage: Seed indoors. Emergence above soil line in seven to 12 days. Plant outdoors 24-36 inches apart. Harvest 60-75 days from transplant. Grown in full sun.
Kale: Seed indoors. Germination occurs in 3-10 days. Harvest 53-65 days from transplant. Can overwinter. Full sun.
Beets: Direct seed 2 inches apart at ½-inch depth. Germination occurs in five-10 days. Thin to 4-6 inches apart. Harvest 60 days. Full sun.
- Arlene Swartzman
• Provided by Master Gardeners through the Master Gardener Answer Desk, Friendship Park Conservatory, Des Plaines, and University of Illinois Extension, North Cook Branch Office, Arlington Heights. Call (847) 298-3502 on Wednesdays or email northcookmg@gmail.com. Visit web.extension.illinois.edu/mg.