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 oriental poppies is to look at the USDA zone info for Duarte.

Planting Calendar for Oriental poppies

Frost tolerance for oriental poppies:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Oriental poppies are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in Duarte 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 oriental poppies and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your oriental poppies may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your oriental poppies indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Duarte. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Duarte is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Duarte you get surprised by a frost after January 31 be ready to cover your oriental poppies if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Duarte

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Duarte

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