One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A way of estimating when to plant cardinal flower is to refer to the USDA zone info for Gonzales.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

Frost tolerance for cardinal flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Cardinal Flower do not do well in cold weather which tells us that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Gonzales is March. However, you really should wait until April 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 September. Any later than that and your cardinal flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Gonzales. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Gonzales 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 Gonzales you get a frost after February 15 be ready to cover your cardinal flower if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Gonzales

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 Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°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 Gonzales

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