One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant creeping phlox is to examine the USDA zone info for San Mateo.

Planting Calendar for Creeping Phlox

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

Creeping Phlox can survive in cold weather which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant creeping phlox in San Mateo 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 creeping phlox and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your creeping phlox may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your creeping phlox indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on January 31 in San Mateo. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for San Mateo and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in San Mateo it frosts late in the year after January 31 so be sure to be ready to protect your creeping phlox if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for San Mateo

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 Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°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 Mateo

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