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

In Santa Cruz you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant fuchsia by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Fuchsia

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

It's a bad idea to plant fuchsia until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant fuchsia 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 fuchsia and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your fuchsia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your fuchsia indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on 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 can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Cruz last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your fuchsia if you have a surprise 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.