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.

In Elk Grove you can determine when you can plant columbine by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

Since columbine are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant columbine in Elk Grove 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. If you wait any later than that and your columbine may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your columbine indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Elk Grove the average date of last frost happens on February 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Elk Grove 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 Elk Grove it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your columbine if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Elk Grove

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Elk Grove

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Elk Grove.