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.

The USDA zone info for California City can be used to figure out when it's the best time to plant platycodon.

Planting Calendar for Platycodon

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

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

The earliest that you can plant platycodon in California City 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 platycodon and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your platycodon may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your platycodon indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in California City. You should expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for California City may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in California City there is a last frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your platycodon in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for California City

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 California City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for California City.