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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Zone 11a you will be able to determine when it's a good idea to plant nigella.

Planting Calendar for Nigella

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

Nigella do well in cold which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant nigella in Zone 11a 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 nigella and expect a good harvest is probably November. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your nigella may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your nigella indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Zone 11a it never frosts. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 40°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 11a is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since it never frosts in Zone 11a you do not have to be ready to protect your nigella if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 11a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 11a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	Never
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	Never
Lowest Expected Low	40°F
Highest Expected Low	45°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 40°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 45°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 11a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 11a.