One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant santolina is to look at the USDA zone info for Surprise.

Planting Calendar for Santolina

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

You can plant santolina much earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

The earliest that you can plant santolina in Surprise 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 santolina and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your santolina may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your santolina indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Surprise. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Surprise is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Surprise there is a last frost after February 15 so always be ready to cover your santolina in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Surprise

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Surprise

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