One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of getting a good idea when you can plant begonias is to look at the USDA zone info for Atascadero.

Planting Calendar for Begonias

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

It's a bad idea to plant begonias until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant begonias in Atascadero 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 begonias and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your begonias may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your begonias indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Atascadero. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Atascadero is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Atascadero there is a last frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your begonias in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Atascadero

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Atascadero

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