One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Red Oak should be looked at to estimate when it's possible to plant sunflowers.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

Sunflowers do not do well in cold weather which means that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Red Oak 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your sunflowers 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 March 15 in Red Oak. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Red Oak may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Red Oak it frosts late in the year after March 15 so always be ready to protect your sunflowers if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Red Oak

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Red Oak

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Red Oak.