Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant cardinal flower is to use the USDA zone info for Carpinteria.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

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

Cardinal Flower require warm weather which means that you have to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Carpinteria 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cardinal flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Carpinteria. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Carpinteria is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Carpinteria there is a last frost after January 31 be ready to protect your cardinal flower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Carpinteria

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 Carpinteria

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