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.

A way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant rudbeckia is to refer to the USDA zone info for Lathrop.

Planting Calendar for Rudbeckia

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

Rudbeckia do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant rudbeckia in Lathrop 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 rudbeckia and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your rudbeckia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your rudbeckia indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Lathrop. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Lathrop may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Lathrop it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your rudbeckia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lathrop

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 Lathrop

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