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 figuring out when to plant cardinal flower is to refer to the USDA zone info for Rochester.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

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

Since cardinal flower do not do well in cold weather you need to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Rochester is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cardinal flower and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cardinal flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Rochester. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Rochester is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Rochester there is a last frost after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your cardinal flower if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Rochester

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