One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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 Costa Mesa can be reviewed to estimate when you can plant bee balm.

Planting Calendar for Bee Balm

Frost tolerance for bee balm:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Bee Balm are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on January 31 in Costa Mesa. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 35°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Costa Mesa is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Costa Mesa there is a last frost after January 31 so make sure that you are ready to cover your bee balm in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Costa Mesa

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in Costa Mesa

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Costa Mesa.