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.

One way of getting a good idea when to plant zinnia is to look at the USDA zone info for El Reno.

Planting Calendar for Zinnia

Frost tolerance for zinnia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's a bad idea to plant zinnia until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant zinnia in El Reno 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 zinnia and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your zinnia may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your zinnia indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in El Reno. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for El Reno is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in El Reno last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your zinnia in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for El Reno

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 El Reno

You may be interested in your other planting guides for El Reno.