The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz you will be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant centaurea.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

Frost tolerance for centaurea:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant centaurea a bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant centaurea in Santa Cruz 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 centaurea and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your centaurea may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your centaurea indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Santa Cruz. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Santa Cruz is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Cruz there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to cover your centaurea if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Cruz

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 Cruz

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