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

A common way of getting a good idea when you can plant primula is to look at the USDA zone info for Santa Clara.

Planting Calendar for Primula

Frost tolerance for primula:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant primula a lot earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant primula in Santa Clara 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 primula and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your primula may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your primula indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Santa Clara. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Clara is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Santa Clara you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your primula if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Clara

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Santa Clara

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Clara.