One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant centaurea is to consult the USDA zone info for Imperial Beach.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Centaurea do ok in some cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on January 31 in Imperial Beach. You can expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Imperial Beach and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Imperial Beach you get a frost after January 31 so always be ready to cover your centaurea in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Imperial Beach

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 Imperial Beach

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Imperial Beach.