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.

The first chance to plant cardinal flower in Carmel should be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

Frost tolerance for cardinal flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant cardinal flower until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Carmel 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 cardinal flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cardinal flower may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Carmel the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Carmel is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Carmel last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your cardinal flower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Carmel

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 Carmel

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