When to Plant Sunflowers in Cambridge, MD

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's a good idea to determine when you can plant sunflowers by looking at the USDA zone info for Cambridge.


Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

Since sunflowers are not cold tolerant it's necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Cambridge 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your sunflowers indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Cambridge. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cambridge may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Cambridge it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your sunflowers in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cambridge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low5°F
Highest Expected Low10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Cambridge

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