One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A common way of getting a good idea when to plant primula is to use the USDA zone info for Monterey.

Planting Calendar for Primula

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

Primula do ok in pretty solid cold which means that you can plant them much earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in Monterey. You can expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Monterey is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Monterey it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to cover your primula if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Monterey

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Monterey

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