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.

One way of estimating when you can plant cardinal flower is to check out the USDA zone info for Jackson.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

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

You can not plant cardinal flower until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Jackson 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. Any later than that and your cardinal flower may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your cardinal flower indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Jackson. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

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

USDA Zone Info for Jackson

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Jackson

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