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.

The first opportunity to plant oriental poppies in California City can be figured out by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Oriental poppies

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

Since oriental poppies are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in California City 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 oriental poppies and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your oriental poppies may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your oriental poppies indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in California City. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for California City may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in California City there is a last frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your oriental poppies in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for California City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in California City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for California City.