Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of estimating when to plant poppies is to examine the USDA zone info for Decatur.

Planting Calendar for Poppies

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

You can plant poppies a little earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Decatur. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Decatur is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Decatur it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your poppies in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Decatur

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Decatur

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