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.

A common way of determining when it's the best time to plant larkspur is to look at the USDA zone info for Long Beach.

Planting Calendar for Larkspur

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

You can plant larkspur earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant larkspur in Long Beach 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 larkspur and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your larkspur may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your larkspur indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Long Beach the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Long Beach is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Long Beach you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your larkspur if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Long Beach

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Long Beach

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Long Beach.