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.

You will be able to estimate when it's possible to plant sunflowers by checking out the USDA zone info for Murrieta.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

It's a bad idea to plant sunflowers until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Murrieta 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 sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your sunflowers indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on January 31 in Murrieta. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Murrieta and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Murrieta last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to protect your sunflowers in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Murrieta

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 Murrieta

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