One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 poppies in Phoenix can be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Poppies

Frost tolerance for poppies:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Poppies are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant poppies in Phoenix is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant poppies and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your poppies may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Phoenix. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Phoenix is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Phoenix there is a last frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your poppies if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Phoenix

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Phoenix

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