One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 USDA zone info for Zone 10b can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's a good idea to plant phlox.

Planting Calendar for Phlox

Frost tolerance for phlox:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Phlox can survive in some cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant phlox in Zone 10b is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant phlox and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your phlox may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in Zone 10b. You should expect an average low temperature of 35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 10b is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Zone 10b it frosts late in the year after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your phlox in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 10b

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 10b

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 10b.