One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant oriental poppies is to look at the USDA zone info for Cleveland.

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 are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in Cleveland is January. However, you really should wait until February 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 October. Any later than that and your oriental poppies may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your oriental poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Cleveland. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Cleveland and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Cleveland you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your oriental poppies in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cleveland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Cleveland

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