When to Plant Nolana in Santa Monica, CA

One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your 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 determining when to plant nolana is to look at the USDA zone info for Santa Monica.


Planting Calendar for Nolana

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

It's not a good idea to plant nolana until after the last frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant nolana
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant nolana
Probably not a good time to plant nolana

The earliest that you can plant nolana 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 nolana and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your nolana may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your nolana indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Santa Monica the average date of last frost happens on January 31. It might get as low as 35°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Santa Monica may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Monica there is a last frost after January 31 so always be ready to cover your nolana if you have a late frost.

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 Low35°F
Highest Expected Low40°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.