One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant cardinal flower is to check out the USDA zone info for Arcadia.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

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

Since cardinal flower require warm weather it's necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Arcadia 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 cardinal flower and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your cardinal flower may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your cardinal flower indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Arcadia. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Arcadia is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Arcadia it frosts late in the year after January 31 so always be ready to protect your cardinal flower in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Arcadia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Arcadia

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