One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant calibrachoa is to look at the USDA zone info for Sarasota.

Planting Calendar for Calibrachoa

Frost tolerance for calibrachoa:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Calibrachoa do ok in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant calibrachoa in Sarasota 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 calibrachoa and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your calibrachoa may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your calibrachoa indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Sarasota the average date of last frost happens on February 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Sarasota is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Sarasota there is a last frost after February 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your calibrachoa in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sarasota

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 Sarasota

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