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

The first opportunity to plant pansies in Santa Barbara should be figured out by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pansies

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

You can plant pansies a lot earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant pansies 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 pansies and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your pansies may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your pansies indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Barbara you get a frost after January 31 so be sure to be ready to protect your pansies 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 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 Barbara

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