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 common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant cardinal flower is to look at the USDA zone info for Lenoir.

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 are not cold tolerant you must wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Lenoir is April. However, you really should wait until May 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 fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Lenoir the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Lenoir may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Lenoir last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your cardinal flower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Lenoir

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Lenoir

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