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

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant california poppy is to use the USDA zone info for Sykesville.

Planting Calendar for California Poppy

Frost tolerance for california poppy:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since california poppy are barely cold tolerant you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant california poppy in Sykesville 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 california poppy and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your california poppy may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your california poppy indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Sykesville the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sykesville is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Sykesville last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your california poppy in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sykesville

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 Sykesville

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