When to Plant Impatiens in Alameda, CA

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

A common way of figuring out when to plant impatiens is to use the USDA zone info for Alameda.


Planting Calendar for Impatiens

Frost tolerance for impatiens: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost has passed.

Since impatiens are not cold tolerant it's important to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant impatiens in Alameda 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 impatiens and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your impatiens may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your impatiens indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Alameda the average date of last frost happens on January 31. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Alameda is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Alameda it frosts late in the year after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your impatiens in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Alameda

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 Low30°F
Highest Expected Low35°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 Alameda

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