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.

You can figure out when you can plant cardinal flower in Marion by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

Frost tolerance for cardinal flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You really shouldn't plant cardinal flower until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Marion 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 cardinal flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your cardinal flower may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Marion the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Marion is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Marion it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your cardinal flower in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Marion

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 Marion

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