One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Mahomet you should be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant oriental poppies.

Planting Calendar for Oriental poppies

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

You can plant oriental poppies just a bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Mahomet. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Mahomet may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Mahomet last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your oriental poppies in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mahomet

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 Mahomet

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