One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Machesney Park can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's a good idea to plant red hot pokers.

Planting Calendar for Red Hot Pokers

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

Since red hot pokers do well in cold you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant red hot pokers in Machesney Park 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 red hot pokers and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your red hot pokers may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your red hot pokers indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Machesney Park. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Machesney Park is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Machesney Park you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your red hot pokers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Machesney Park

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°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 -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Machesney Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Machesney Park.