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.

The USDA zone info for San Diego should be reffered to in order to estimate when to plant california poppy.

Planting Calendar for California Poppy

Frost tolerance for california poppy:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant california poppy a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant california poppy in San Diego 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 california poppy and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your california poppy may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your california poppy indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in San Diego. You should expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for San Diego and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in San Diego it frosts late in the year after January 31 so just be sure to be ready to cover your california poppy if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for San Diego

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in San Diego

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