One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can determine when it's the best time to plant gayfeather in Santa Cruz by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gayfeather

Frost tolerance for gayfeather:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant gayfeather earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant gayfeather 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 gayfeather and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your gayfeather may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your gayfeather indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Santa Cruz the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Cruz it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your gayfeather 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.