One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 Carlsbad should be reffered to in order to figure out when it's a good idea to plant achimenes.

Planting Calendar for Achimenes

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

It's a bad idea to plant achimenes until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant achimenes in Carlsbad 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 achimenes and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your achimenes may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your achimenes indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Carlsbad the average date of last frost happens on January 31. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Carlsbad is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Carlsbad you get surprised by a frost after January 31 be ready to protect your achimenes in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Carlsbad

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Carlsbad

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