One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

You should be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant carnation by referring to the USDA zone info for Carthage.

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 a bit of cold which means that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Carthage. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Carthage and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Carthage last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your carnation if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Carthage

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

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

Plants to Grow in Carthage

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