The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant hardy hibiscus is to use the USDA zone info for Palo Alto.

Planting Calendar for Hardy Hibiscus

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

Hardy Hibiscus do ok in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant hardy hibiscus in Palo Alto 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. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your hardy hibiscus indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Palo Alto. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Palo Alto is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Palo Alto last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your hardy hibiscus in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Palo Alto

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 Palo Alto

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Palo Alto.