When to Plant Pansies in Salinas, CA

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Salinas should be read to figure out when it's the best time to plant pansies.


Planting Calendar for Pansies

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

Pansies do well in cold which means that you can get them planted much earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant pansies in Salinas 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 pansies and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your pansies may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your pansies indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Salinas the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Salinas is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Salinas you get a frost after February 15 be ready to protect your pansies if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salinas

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 Salinas

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