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.

In San Francisco you can determine when it's a good idea to plant poppies by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Poppies

Frost tolerance for poppies:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant poppies a little earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant poppies in San Francisco 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 poppies and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your poppies may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your poppies indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in San Francisco. You can expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for San Francisco is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in San Francisco you get surprised by a frost after January 31 be ready to protect your poppies if you have a surprise late frost.

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.