The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening 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 it's a good idea to plant cardinal flower is to use the USDA zone info for Lexington.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

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

It's a bad idea to plant cardinal flower until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Lexington 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Lexington the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Lexington is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Lexington last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your cardinal flower if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lexington

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 Lexington

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