Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant periwinkles is to check out the USDA zone info for Santa Maria.

Planting Calendar for Periwinkles

Frost tolerance for periwinkles:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

Since periwinkles do not do well in cold weather it's necessary to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

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

The last month that you can plant periwinkles and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your periwinkles may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your periwinkles indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Santa Maria. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Santa Maria is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Maria last frost occurs after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your periwinkles 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.