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.

A way of determining when to plant sunflowers is to look at the USDA zone info for Red Oak.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Sunflowers do not do well in cold weather which tells us that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Red Oak 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Red Oak. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Red Oak is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Red Oak you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your sunflowers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Red Oak

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Red Oak

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Red Oak.