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.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant coleus is to look at the USDA zone info for Salem.

Planting Calendar for Coleus

Frost tolerance for coleus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

Coleus are not cold tolerant which means that it is important to wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant coleus in Salem 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 coleus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your coleus may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your coleus indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Salem. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Salem and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Salem there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your coleus if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Salem

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Salem.