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.

In Columbus you can figure out when you can plant dianthus by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Dianthus

Frost tolerance for dianthus:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since dianthus are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant dianthus in Columbus 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 dianthus and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dianthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your dianthus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Columbus. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Columbus is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Columbus there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to protect your dianthus in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Columbus

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 Columbus

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