One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 USDA zone info for San Clemente should be reffered to in order to figure out when it's possible to plant cardinal flower.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

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

Cardinal Flower require warm weather which means that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in San Clemente 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 cardinal flower and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cardinal flower may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your cardinal flower indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on January 31 in San Clemente. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for San Clemente is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in San Clemente you get surprised by a frost after January 31 so be sure to be ready to cover your cardinal flower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for San Clemente

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 San Clemente

You may be interested in your other planting guides for San Clemente.