One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 figuring out when to plant cardinal flower is to check out the USDA zone info for Valdosta.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

Frost tolerance for cardinal flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You should not plant cardinal flower until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Valdosta 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cardinal flower may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Valdosta. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Valdosta is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Valdosta you get a frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your cardinal flower in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Valdosta

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 Valdosta

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