Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant hardy asters is to look at the USDA zone info for Indio.

Planting Calendar for Hardy Asters

Frost tolerance for hardy asters:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Hardy Asters do ok in some cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant hardy asters in Indio is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant hardy asters and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your hardy asters may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your hardy asters indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Indio. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Indio is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Indio there is a last frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your hardy asters if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Indio

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 Indio

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