One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 Binghamton should be reviewed to figure out when it's the best time to plant cardinal flower.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

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

It's a bad idea to plant cardinal flower until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Binghamton may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Binghamton you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your cardinal flower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Binghamton

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 Binghamton

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