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 first opportunity to plant heliotrope in San Jose should be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Heliotrope

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

Heliotrope are not cold tolerant which tells us that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

Last Frost Date

In San Jose the average date of last frost happens on February 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for San Jose may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in San Jose it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your heliotrope if you have a 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.