Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant canna in Santa Cruz can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Canna

Frost tolerance for canna:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You should not plant canna until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant canna in Santa Cruz 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 canna and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your canna may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your canna indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Santa Cruz. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Cruz you get a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your canna in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Cruz

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Santa Cruz

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Cruz.