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 Sussex should be reffered to in order to estimate when to plant california poppy.

Planting Calendar for California Poppy

Frost tolerance for california poppy:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

California Poppy are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant california poppy in Sussex is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant california poppy and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your california poppy may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your california poppy indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Sussex. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Sussex may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Sussex it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your california poppy if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sussex

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°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 -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Sussex

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