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

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant chrysanthemum is to check out the USDA zone info for Santa Ana.

Planting Calendar for Chrysanthemum

Frost tolerance for chrysanthemum:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Chrysanthemum 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 chrysanthemum in Santa Ana 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 chrysanthemum and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your chrysanthemum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your chrysanthemum indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on January 31 in Santa Ana. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Ana is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Ana it frosts late in the year after January 31 be ready to protect your chrysanthemum if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Ana

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 Santa Ana

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Ana.