When to Plant Poppies in Donaldsonville, LA

One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant poppies is to check out the USDA zone info for Donaldsonville.


Planting Calendar for Poppies

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

Poppies are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant poppies
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant poppies
Probably not a good time to plant poppies

The earliest that you can plant poppies in Donaldsonville is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant poppies and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your poppies may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Donaldsonville. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Donaldsonville 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 Donaldsonville you get a frost after February 15 be ready to cover your poppies if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Donaldsonville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low20°F
Highest Expected Low25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Donaldsonville

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