One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

A way of estimating when it's the best time to plant nierembergia is to consult the USDA zone info for Santa Monica.

Planting Calendar for Nierembergia

Frost tolerance for nierembergia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You can not plant nierembergia until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on January 31 in Santa Monica. It might get as low as 35°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Monica may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Monica last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to protect your nierembergia in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Monica

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in Santa Monica

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