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.

The USDA zone info for Zone 12a can be read to figure out when you can plant cleome.

Planting Calendar for Cleome

Frost tolerance for cleome:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant cleome until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant cleome in Zone 12a 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 cleome and expect a good harvest is probably November. Any later than that and your cleome may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your cleome indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Zone 12a it never frosts. You should expect an average low temperature of 50°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 12a is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since it never frosts in Zone 12a you do not have to be ready to cover your cleome in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 12a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 12a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	Never
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	Never
Lowest Expected Low	50°F
Highest Expected Low	55°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 50°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 55°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 12a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 12a.