One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

You will be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant petunias by using the USDA zone info for Mission.

Planting Calendar for Petunias

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

Petunias do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant petunias in Mission 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 petunias and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your petunias may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your petunias indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Mission and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Mission last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your petunias in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mission

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 Mission

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