One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 to plant red hot pokers in Lake Charles by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Red Hot Pokers

Frost tolerance for red hot pokers:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Red Hot Pokers are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can get them planted much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant red hot pokers in Lake Charles 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 red hot pokers and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your red hot pokers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your red hot pokers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Lake Charles. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Lake Charles and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Lake Charles you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so always be ready to protect your red hot pokers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lake Charles

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 Lake Charles

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Lake Charles.