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.

The earliest that you can plant monarda in Santa Clara can be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Monarda

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

You can plant monarda slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Santa Clara. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Clara may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Santa Clara it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your monarda in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Clara

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Santa Clara

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