One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your 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 Evansville it's a good idea to figure out when it's possible 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.

Since oriental poppies are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in Evansville 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. Any later than that and your oriental poppies may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your oriental poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Evansville. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Evansville may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Evansville it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your oriental poppies in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Evansville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Evansville

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