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

A common way of determining when you can plant cardinal flower is to refer to the USDA zone info for Santa Clarita.

Planting Calendar for Cardinal Flower

Frost tolerance for cardinal flower:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's probably not a good idea to plant cardinal flower until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cardinal flower in Santa Clarita is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant cardinal flower and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cardinal flower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your cardinal flower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Santa Clarita the average date of last frost happens on February 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Clarita is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Clarita last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your cardinal flower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Clarita

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 Clarita

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