One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

In Carthage you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant gayfeather by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

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

Gayfeather do ok in a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather in Carthage 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 gayfeather and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your gayfeather may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your gayfeather indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Carthage may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Carthage it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to cover your gayfeather if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Carthage

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Carthage

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