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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Los Altos it's a good idea to determine when it's the best time to plant canna.

Planting Calendar for Canna

Frost tolerance for canna:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

You can not plant canna until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Los Altos. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Los Altos is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Los Altos there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to cover your canna if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Los Altos

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 Los Altos

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Los Altos.