One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz it's a good idea to estimate when it's the best time to plant geum.

Planting Calendar for Geum

Frost tolerance for geum:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since geum do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant geum in Santa Cruz is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant geum and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your geum may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your geum indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Cruz is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Cruz you get a frost after February 15 so always be ready to cover your geum 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.