One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

In Santa Barbara you can determine when you can plant schizanthus by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Schizanthus

Frost tolerance for schizanthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You should not plant schizanthus until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

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

Last Frost Date

In Santa Barbara the average date of last frost happens on January 31. You should expect an average low temperature of 30°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Barbara is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Barbara last frost occurs after January 31 so always be ready to protect your schizanthus if you have 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.