Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant poppies is to use the USDA zone info for Penn Yan.

Planting Calendar for Poppies

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

Since poppies are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

In Penn Yan the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Penn Yan and it is different every year. Half of the time in Penn Yan last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your poppies if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Penn Yan

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 Penn Yan

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Penn Yan.