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.

The USDA zone info for Avenal should be used to figure out when it's the best time to plant phlox.

Planting Calendar for Phlox

Frost tolerance for phlox:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Phlox are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant phlox in Avenal is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant phlox and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your phlox may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your phlox indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Avenal. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Avenal is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Avenal there is a last frost after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your phlox if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Avenal

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 Avenal

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