One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

You should be able to determine when to plant dracaena by checking out the USDA zone info for Shafter.

Planting Calendar for Dracaena

Frost tolerance for dracaena:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since dracaena are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them much earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant dracaena in Shafter 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 dracaena and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your dracaena may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your dracaena indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Shafter the average date of last frost happens on February 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Shafter is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Shafter it frosts late in the year after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your dracaena in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Shafter

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Shafter

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Shafter.