When to Plant Liatris in Santa Barbara, CA

Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. 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 possible to plant liatris in Santa Barbara by reviewing the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Liatris

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

Liatris are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant liatris in Santa Barbara 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 liatris and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your liatris may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your liatris indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Santa Barbara you get a frost after January 31 be ready to protect your liatris if you have one of those late frosts.

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.