When to Plant California Poppy in Pittsfield, IL

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's possible to plant california poppy is to look at the USDA zone info for Pittsfield.


Planting Calendar for California Poppy

Frost tolerance for california poppy: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant california poppy just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant california poppy
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant california poppy
Probably not a good time to plant california poppy

The earliest that you can plant california poppy in Pittsfield is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant california poppy and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your california poppy may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your california poppy indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Pittsfield is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Pittsfield you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your california poppy if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Pittsfield

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 Pittsfield

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