One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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 determine when to plant hardy asters by checking out the USDA zone info for Orange.

Planting Calendar for Hardy Asters

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

Hardy Asters do ok in some cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Orange. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Orange is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Orange you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your hardy asters in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Orange

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Orange

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