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.

One way of estimating when it's the best time to plant heliotrope is to examine the USDA zone info for Chowchilla.

Planting Calendar for Heliotrope

Frost tolerance for heliotrope:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

You should not plant heliotrope until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant heliotrope in Chowchilla 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 heliotrope and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your heliotrope may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your heliotrope indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Chowchilla. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Chowchilla is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Chowchilla you get a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your heliotrope in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Chowchilla

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 Chowchilla

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