When to Plant Poppies in Zone 1b

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant poppies is to use the USDA zone info for Zone 1b.


Planting Calendar for Poppies

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

Since poppies are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant poppies
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant poppies
Probably not a good time to plant poppies

The earliest that you can plant poppies in Zone 1b is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant poppies and expect a good harvest is probably July. If you wait any later than that and your poppies may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on June 15 in Zone 1b. It might get as low as -55°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Zone 1b is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Zone 1b there is a last frost after June 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your poppies if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 1b

Here is the info for USDA Zone 1b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)June 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)July 15
Lowest Expected Low-55°F
Highest Expected Low-50°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -55°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -50°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 1b

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 1b.