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 USDA zone info for Smithfield should be reviewed to estimate when to plant caladium.

Planting Calendar for Caladium

Frost tolerance for caladium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably not a good idea to plant caladium until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant caladium in Smithfield 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 caladium and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your caladium may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your caladium indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Smithfield the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Smithfield is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Smithfield last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your caladium if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Smithfield

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 Smithfield

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