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 way of determining when to plant strawflowers is to use the USDA zone info for Atwater.

Planting Calendar for Strawflowers

Frost tolerance for strawflowers:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Strawflowers are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Atwater may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Atwater there is a last frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your strawflowers in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Atwater

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 Atwater

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