One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant dianthus is to look at the USDA zone info for Hagerstown.

Planting Calendar for Dianthus

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

Since dianthus are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

The last month that you can plant dianthus and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your dianthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your dianthus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Hagerstown. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Hagerstown 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 Hagerstown last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your dianthus if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hagerstown

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 Hagerstown

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