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 USDA zone info for Benson should be reffered to in order to figure out when it's possible to plant cardinal flower.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

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

It's probably not a good idea to plant cardinal flower until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Benson 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 really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Benson may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Benson it frosts late in the year after March 15 so always be ready to protect your cardinal flower if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Benson

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Benson

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