One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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 common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant oriental poppies is to examine the USDA zone info for Coralville.

Planting Calendar for Oriental poppies

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

You can plant oriental poppies a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in Coralville 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. Any later than that and your oriental poppies may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your oriental poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Coralville the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Coralville and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Coralville there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your oriental poppies in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Coralville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

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

Plants to Grow in Coralville

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