One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant pentas is to check out the USDA zone info for Santa Fe.

Planting Calendar for Pentas

Frost tolerance for pentas:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant pentas until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant pentas in Santa Fe is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant pentas and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your pentas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pentas indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Santa Fe. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Fe may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Santa Fe you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your pentas in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Fe

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Santa Fe

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