Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. 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 Jose should be looked at to determine when it's the best time to plant carnation.

Planting Calendar for Carnation

Frost tolerance for carnation:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Carnation do well in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them much earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in San Jose. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for San Jose and it is different every year. Since half of the time in San Jose you get surprised by a frost after February 15 be ready to cover your carnation in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for San Jose

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in San Jose

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