When to Plant Oriental poppies in South Pasadena, CA

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.

It's possible to figure out when it's possible to plant oriental poppies by looking at the USDA zone info for South Pasadena.


Planting Calendar for Oriental poppies

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

Oriental poppies do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant oriental poppies in South Pasadena 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 oriental poppies and expect a good harvest is probably October. Any later than that and your oriental poppies may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your oriental poppies indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In South Pasadena the average date of last frost happens on January 31. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for South Pasadena is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in South Pasadena last frost occurs after January 31 be ready to cover your oriental poppies if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for South Pasadena

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low30°F
Highest Expected Low35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in South Pasadena

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