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.

It's a good idea to estimate when it's possible to plant geum by referring to the USDA zone info for California.

Planting Calendar for Geum

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

Geum are barely cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant geum in California 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 geum and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your geum may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your geum indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in California. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for California is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in California there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your geum if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for California

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°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 0°F.

Plants to Grow in California

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