One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In California you can determine when it's a good idea to plant matricaria by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Matricaria

Frost tolerance for matricaria:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant matricaria a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in California. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for California may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in California it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your matricaria in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.