One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Loomis you can figure out when to plant catharanthus by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

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

It's a bad idea to plant catharanthus until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant catharanthus in Loomis is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant catharanthus and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your catharanthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your catharanthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Loomis. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Loomis is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Loomis it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your catharanthus if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Loomis

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 Loomis

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