One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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.

The USDA zone info for Santa Ana should be used to determine when it's possible to plant rock cress.

Planting Calendar for Rock Cress

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

Rock Cress do ok in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Santa Ana 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 rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your rock cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your rock cress indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Santa Ana. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Santa Ana and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Ana last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to protect your rock cress in the event of 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.