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.

In Suffolk you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant flowering kale by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Flowering Kale

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

Flowering Kale do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

In Suffolk the average date of last frost happens on March 15. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Suffolk and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Suffolk last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your flowering kale in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Suffolk

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 Suffolk

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