One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 should be able to determine when it's possible to plant chrysanthemum by referring to the USDA zone info for Portola Valley.

Planting Calendar for Chrysanthemum

Frost tolerance for chrysanthemum:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably a bad idea to plant chrysanthemum until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant chrysanthemum in Portola Valley 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 chrysanthemum and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chrysanthemum may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your chrysanthemum indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in Portola Valley. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Portola Valley may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Portola Valley it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to protect your chrysanthemum if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portola Valley

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Portola Valley

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Portola Valley.