Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Salinas you can figure out when it's possible to plant penstemon by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Penstemon

Frost tolerance for penstemon:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Penstemon do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Salinas. You can expect an average low temperature of 25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Salinas is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Salinas there is a last frost after February 15 be ready to protect your penstemon if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Salinas

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 Salinas

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