One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 will be able to figure out when you can plant dianthus by looking at the USDA zone info for Bedford.

Planting Calendar for Dianthus

Frost tolerance for dianthus:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Dianthus do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant dianthus in Bedford 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 dianthus and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your dianthus may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your dianthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Bedford. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Bedford may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Bedford there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your dianthus in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bedford

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Bedford

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