One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your 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 determining when it's possible to plant oriental poppies is to consult the USDA zone info for Little Rock.

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 tend to make it in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in Little Rock 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. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your oriental poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Little Rock. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Little Rock is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Little Rock you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your oriental poppies in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Little Rock

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 Little Rock

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Little Rock.