The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. 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 a good idea to plant centaurea is to refer to the USDA zone info for South Lake Tahoe.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

Centaurea do well in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant centaurea in South Lake Tahoe 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 centaurea and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your centaurea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your centaurea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in South Lake Tahoe. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for South Lake Tahoe is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in South Lake Tahoe you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your centaurea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for South Lake Tahoe

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in South Lake Tahoe

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South Lake Tahoe.