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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Walnut Creek you should be able to figure out when 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 a bad idea to plant cardinal flower until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Walnut Creek is March. However, you really should wait until April 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 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 all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Walnut Creek. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Walnut Creek and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Walnut Creek it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your cardinal flower in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Walnut Creek

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 Walnut Creek

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Walnut Creek.