One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 way of determining when you can plant carnation is to check out the USDA zone info for Hillsdale.

Planting Calendar for Carnation

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

Since carnation are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them much earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant carnation in Hillsdale 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 carnation and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your carnation may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your carnation indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Hillsdale. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Hillsdale is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Hillsdale it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your carnation if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hillsdale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Hillsdale

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