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.

You can estimate when it's the best time to plant catharanthus in San Jose by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Catharanthus

Frost tolerance for catharanthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

Since catharanthus require warm weather you have to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant catharanthus in San Jose is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant catharanthus and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your catharanthus may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your catharanthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in San Jose. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for San Jose is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in San Jose last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your catharanthus if you have a surprise late frost.

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.