The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine 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 Maria you can figure out when it's possible to plant fountain grass by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Fountain Grass

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

You can plant fountain grass slightly earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Santa Maria. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Maria is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Santa Maria you get a frost after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your fountain grass in the event of 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.