Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can estimate when it's possible to plant petunias in Downey by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Petunias

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

You can plant petunias slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant petunias in Downey 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 petunias and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your petunias may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your petunias indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Downey. You can expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Downey is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Downey it frosts late in the year after January 31 so make sure that you are ready to cover your petunias if you have one of those late frosts.

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.