One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can determine when it's possible to plant heliotrope in Clearlake by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Heliotrope

Frost tolerance for heliotrope:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant heliotrope until after all chance of frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant heliotrope in Clearlake is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant heliotrope and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your heliotrope may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your heliotrope indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Clearlake. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Clearlake is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Clearlake it frosts late in the year after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your heliotrope if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Clearlake

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 Clearlake

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