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 common way of determining when it's the best time to plant lisianthus is to look at the USDA zone info for Carmel.

Planting Calendar for Lisianthus

Frost tolerance for lisianthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant lisianthus until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant lisianthus in Carmel 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 lisianthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your lisianthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your lisianthus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Carmel the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Carmel may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Carmel it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your lisianthus in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Carmel

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 Carmel

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