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

By looking at the USDA zone info for Placerville it's possible to determine when it's the best time to plant sunflowers.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

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

Since sunflowers are not cold tolerant it is necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Placerville is March. However, you really should wait until April 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else 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 is on February 15 in Placerville. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Placerville is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Placerville last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your sunflowers if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Placerville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Placerville

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