The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's possible to plant artichokes is to examine the USDA zone info for Norfolk.

Planting Calendar for Artichokes

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

Since artichokes are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant artichokes in Norfolk 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 artichokes and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your artichokes may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your artichokes indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Norfolk. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Norfolk is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Norfolk you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your artichokes if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Norfolk

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Norfolk

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