One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

A common way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant elephant ears is to use the USDA zone info for San Francisco.

Planting Calendar for Elephant Ears

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

Elephant Ears require warm weather which tells us that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant elephant ears in San Francisco 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 elephant ears and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your elephant ears may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your elephant ears indoors.

Last Frost Date

In San Francisco the average date of last frost happens on January 31. It might get as low as 35°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for San Francisco is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in San Francisco it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to cover your elephant ears in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for San Francisco

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 Francisco

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