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.

A way of getting a good idea when you can plant red hot pokers is to examine the USDA zone info for Portola Valley.

Planting Calendar for Red Hot Pokers

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

You can plant red hot pokers much earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant red hot pokers in Portola Valley 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 red hot pokers and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your red hot pokers may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your red hot pokers indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Portola Valley may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Portola Valley you get a frost after January 31 so be sure to be ready to protect your red hot pokers if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portola Valley

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 Portola Valley

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Portola Valley.