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.

A way of determining when it's a good idea to plant achimenes is to examine the USDA zone info for Irvine.

Planting Calendar for Achimenes

Frost tolerance for achimenes:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Since achimenes do not do well in cold weather you need to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant achimenes in Irvine 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 achimenes and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your achimenes may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your achimenes indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on January 31 in Irvine. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Irvine is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Irvine it frosts late in the year after January 31 so make sure that you are ready to protect your achimenes in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Irvine

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 Irvine

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