When to Plant Primroses in Palo Alto, CA

One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

You can determine when it's a good idea to plant primroses in Palo Alto by looking at the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Primroses

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

Primroses are very cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them much earlier than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant primroses
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant primroses
Probably not a good time to plant primroses

The earliest that you can plant primroses 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 primroses and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your primroses may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your primroses indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Palo Alto. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Palo Alto and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Palo Alto you get a frost after February 15 be ready to cover your primroses 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 Low25°F
Highest Expected Low30°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.