Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out 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 determining when it's a good idea to plant carnation is to refer to the USDA zone info for Ashland.

Planting Calendar for Carnation

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

Carnation do well in cold which means that you can plant them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant carnation in Ashland 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 fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your carnation indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Ashland. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Ashland is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Ashland last frost occurs after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your carnation in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ashland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Ashland

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