One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

It's a good idea to determine when you can plant oriental poppies by referring to the USDA zone info for Oxford.

Planting Calendar for Oriental poppies

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

Oriental poppies do well in some cold which tells us that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in Oxford 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 oriental poppies and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your oriental poppies may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your oriental poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Oxford. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Oxford is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Oxford there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your oriental poppies if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oxford

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Oxford

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