One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 common way of figuring out when to plant zinnia is to refer to the USDA zone info for Bakersfield.

Planting Calendar for Zinnia

Frost tolerance for zinnia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

You can not plant zinnia until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant zinnia in Bakersfield 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 zinnia and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your zinnia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your zinnia indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Bakersfield. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Bakersfield is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Bakersfield it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your zinnia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bakersfield

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 Bakersfield

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