One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

One way of making a decision about when you can plant schizanthus is to check out the USDA zone info for Mission.

Planting Calendar for Schizanthus

Frost tolerance for schizanthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

You can not plant schizanthus until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant schizanthus in Mission 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 schizanthus and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your schizanthus may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your schizanthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Mission. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Mission may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Mission you get a frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your schizanthus in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.