One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

It's a good idea to determine when to plant lobelia by using the USDA zone info for Downey.

Planting Calendar for Lobelia

Frost tolerance for lobelia:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Lobelia are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant lobelia in Downey is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in Downey. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 35°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Downey is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Downey last frost occurs after January 31 so always be ready to protect your lobelia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Downey

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 Downey

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