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

By referring to the USDA zone info for San Jose it's possible to estimate when it's the best time to plant portulaca.

Planting Calendar for Portulaca

Frost tolerance for portulaca:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

Portulaca require warm weather which means that you have to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant portulaca 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 portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your portulaca may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in San Jose. 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 last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your portulaca 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.