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 first chance to plant scabiosa in Carmel should be figured out by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Scabiosa

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

Since scabiosa are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant scabiosa in Carmel 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 scabiosa and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your scabiosa may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your scabiosa indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

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

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.