One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your 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.

One way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant chinese celery is to check out the USDA zone info for Santa Maria.

Planting Calendar for Chinese celery

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

Chinese celery are barely cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Maria 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 Maria it frosts late in the year after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your chinese celery if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Maria

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 Maria

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