One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of estimating when you can plant iceland poppy is to check out the USDA zone info for Santa Maria.

Planting Calendar for Iceland Poppy

Frost tolerance for iceland poppy:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant iceland poppy a bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant iceland poppy in Santa Maria 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 iceland poppy and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your iceland poppy may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your iceland poppy indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Santa Maria. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Maria is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Santa Maria last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your iceland poppy 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.