Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when to plant cardinal flower is to check out the USDA zone info for San Fernando.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

Frost tolerance for cardinal flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant cardinal flower until after the last frost has passed because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in San Fernando 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. If you wait any later than that and 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 few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In San Fernando the average date of last frost happens on January 31. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for San Fernando and it is different every year. Since half of the time in San Fernando last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to protect your cardinal flower in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for San Fernando

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 Fernando

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