One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

The first chance to plant periwinkles in Rancho Santa Margarita should be estimated by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Periwinkles

Frost tolerance for periwinkles:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You can not plant periwinkles until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant periwinkles in Rancho Santa Margarita 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 periwinkles and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your periwinkles may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your periwinkles indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Rancho Santa Margarita. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rancho Santa Margarita is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Rancho Santa Margarita it frosts late in the year after January 31 so just be sure to be ready to protect your periwinkles in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rancho Santa Margarita

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 Rancho Santa Margarita

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Rancho Santa Margarita.