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.

In Belen you can determine when it's a good idea to plant carnation by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Carnation

Frost tolerance for carnation:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Carnation do ok in cold weather which means that you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant carnation in Belen 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 couple of weeks earlier by starting your carnation indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Belen the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Belen is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Belen last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your carnation in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Belen

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Belen

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