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.

The first opportunity to plant gaillardia in San Diego should be estimated by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gaillardia

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

Since gaillardia do ok in moderate cold you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant gaillardia in San Diego 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 gaillardia and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your gaillardia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your gaillardia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on February 15 in San Diego. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for San Diego may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in San Diego last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your gaillardia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for San Diego

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 San Diego

You may be interested in your other planting guides for San Diego.