One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 first opportunity to plant cleome in Santa Cruz can be figured out by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

Frost tolerance for cleome:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

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

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Santa Cruz 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 cleome and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your cleome may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your cleome indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Santa Cruz. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz is an average 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 cleome in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.