One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your 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 possible to plant carnation is to refer to the USDA zone info for Cape Canaveral.

Planting Calendar for Carnation

Frost tolerance for carnation:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Carnation are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant carnation in Cape Canaveral 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 carnation and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your carnation may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your carnation indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Cape Canaveral. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Cape Canaveral and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Cape Canaveral it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your carnation in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cape Canaveral

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 Cape Canaveral

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Cape Canaveral.