One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

One way of determining when it's the best time to plant carnation is to examine the USDA zone info for Elberton.

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 means that you can plant them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant carnation in Elberton 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 carnation and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your carnation may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your carnation indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Elberton. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Elberton is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Elberton last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your carnation if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elberton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Elberton

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