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 Angeles can be looked at to figure out when it's possible to plant cuphea.

Planting Calendar for Cuphea

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

It's a bad idea to plant cuphea until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Los Angeles. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 35°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Los Angeles is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Los Angeles last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to cover your cuphea in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Los Angeles

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in Los Angeles

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