One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 way of estimating when you can plant dianthus is to check out the USDA zone info for Auburn.

Planting Calendar for Dianthus

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

Dianthus do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant dianthus in Auburn 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 dianthus and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dianthus may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your dianthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Auburn. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Auburn is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Auburn it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your dianthus if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Auburn

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

Plants to Grow in Auburn

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