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.

You can estimate when to plant carnation in Rusk by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Carnation

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

Carnation are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them much earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant carnation in Rusk 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 carnation and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your carnation may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your carnation indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Rusk. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Rusk and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Rusk it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to protect your carnation if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rusk

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 Rusk

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