One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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 El Cerrito can be reffered to in order to figure out when you can plant dianthus.

Planting Calendar for Dianthus

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

Dianthus do ok in a little bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant dianthus in El Cerrito 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 dianthus and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your dianthus may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your dianthus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in El Cerrito. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for El Cerrito may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in El Cerrito last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to cover your dianthus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for El Cerrito

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 Cerrito

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