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 getting a good idea when it's the best time to plant sunflowers is to examine the USDA zone info for Willows.

Planting Calendar for Sunflowers

Frost tolerance for sunflowers:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's a bad idea to plant sunflowers until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant sunflowers in Willows is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant sunflowers and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your sunflowers may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your sunflowers indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Willows. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Willows is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Willows last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to cover your sunflowers if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Willows

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 Willows

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