Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Santa Barbara you can determine when it's possible to plant red hot pokers by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Red Hot Pokers

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

You can plant red hot pokers much earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary 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 red hot pokers in the event of a 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.