One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

The USDA zone info for Watsonville can be reffered to in order to estimate when you can plant dusty miller.

Planting Calendar for Dusty Miller

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

Since dusty miller are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant dusty miller in Watsonville 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 dusty miller and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dusty miller may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your dusty miller indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in Watsonville. You should expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Watsonville is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Watsonville last frost occurs after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your dusty miller if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Watsonville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Watsonville

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