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.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant oriental poppies is to look at the USDA zone info for Prescott.

Planting Calendar for Oriental poppies

Frost tolerance for oriental poppies:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Oriental poppies do well in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in Prescott 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 oriental poppies and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your oriental poppies may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your oriental poppies indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Prescott. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Prescott is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Prescott there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to cover your oriental poppies if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Prescott

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Prescott

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