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.

A common way of determining when to plant oriental poppies is to refer to the USDA zone info for Bellevue.

Planting Calendar for Oriental poppies

Frost tolerance for oriental poppies:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

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

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in Bellevue 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 oriental poppies and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your oriental poppies may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your oriental poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Bellevue. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Bellevue is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Bellevue last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your oriental poppies if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bellevue

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 Bellevue

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