The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You will be able to estimate when it's possible to plant columbine by checking out the USDA zone info for El Centro.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

Columbine do well in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant columbine in El Centro 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 columbine and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your columbine may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your columbine indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in El Centro. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for El Centro may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in El Centro you get surprised by a frost after January 31 so be sure to be ready to cover your columbine in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for El Centro

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 El Centro

You may be interested in your other planting guides for El Centro.