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

The first chance to plant cardinal flower in Columbia can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

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

Cardinal Flower require warm weather which tells us that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Columbia 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 fully mature. If you are starting your cardinal flower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Columbia. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Columbia is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Columbia you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your cardinal flower if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Columbia

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 Columbia

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