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.

The USDA zone info for Lancaster should be reffered to in order to figure out when it's a good idea 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 when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant cardinal flower until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Lancaster 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. Any later than that and your cardinal flower may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your cardinal flower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Lancaster 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.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Lancaster is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Lancaster last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your cardinal flower if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lancaster

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 Lancaster

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