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.

In Clay you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant red hot pokers by checking out the USDA zone info.

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 do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant red hot pokers in Clay 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. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your red hot pokers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Clay. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Clay may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Clay you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your red hot pokers in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Clay

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Clay

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