When to Plant Calibrachoa in Santa Barbara, CA

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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 to plant calibrachoa in Santa Barbara by referring to the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Calibrachoa

Frost tolerance for calibrachoa: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Calibrachoa tend to make it in very little cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

The earliest that you can plant calibrachoa in Santa Barbara 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 calibrachoa and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your calibrachoa may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your calibrachoa indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Santa Barbara. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 30°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Barbara it frosts late in the year after January 31 so always be ready to cover your calibrachoa in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Barbara

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 Santa Barbara

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