When to Plant Portulaca in San Juan Capistrano, CA

One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 figure out when it's the best time to plant portulaca in San Juan Capistrano by using the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Portulaca

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

Portulaca do not do well in cold weather which means that it's necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant portulaca
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant portulaca
Probably not a good time to plant portulaca

The earliest that you can plant portulaca in San Juan Capistrano is February. However, you really should wait until March 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. Starting your portulaca indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in San Juan Capistrano. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for San Juan Capistrano is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in San Juan Capistrano last frost occurs after January 31 so just be sure to be ready to protect your portulaca in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for San Juan Capistrano

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low30°F
Highest Expected Low35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in San Juan Capistrano

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