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.

A way of determining when it's the best time to plant impatiens is to examine the USDA zone info for Arcata.

Planting Calendar for Impatiens

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

Impatiens require warm weather which means that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Arcata. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Arcata is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Arcata last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to cover your impatiens if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Arcata

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 Arcata

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