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.

One way of determining when it's the best time to plant oriental poppies is to consult the USDA zone info for West Memphis.

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 can survive in mild cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in West Memphis 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your oriental poppies may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your oriental poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

In West Memphis the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for West Memphis is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in West Memphis last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your oriental poppies in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Memphis

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 West Memphis

You may be interested in your other planting guides for West Memphis.