Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to estimate when to plant columbine by checking out the USDA zone info for Manteca.

Planting Calendar for Columbine

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

Since columbine are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a little earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Manteca. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Manteca is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Manteca it frosts late in the year after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your columbine in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Manteca

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 Manteca

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