When to Plant Hardy Hibiscus in Los Altos, CA

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.

The USDA zone info for Los Altos should be reviewed to estimate when it's possible to plant hardy hibiscus.


Planting Calendar for Hardy Hibiscus

Frost tolerance for hardy hibiscus: Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant: Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since hardy hibiscus are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant hardy hibiscus
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant hardy hibiscus
Probably not a good time to plant hardy hibiscus

The earliest that you can plant hardy hibiscus in Los Altos 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 hardy hibiscus and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your hardy hibiscus may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your hardy hibiscus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Los Altos is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Los Altos there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to protect your hardy hibiscus in the event of one of those late frosts.

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 Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°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.