One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The best time to plant carnation in Kearney should be determined by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Carnation

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

Carnation tend to make it in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant carnation in Kearney 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. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your carnation indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Kearney is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Kearney last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your carnation in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Kearney

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 Kearney

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