One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 Crete should be reviewed to estimate when it's the best time to plant oleander.

Planting Calendar for Oleander

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

It's probably not a good idea to plant oleander until after the last frost because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant oleander in Crete 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 oleander and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your oleander may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your oleander indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Crete. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Crete is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Crete it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your oleander if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Crete

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Crete

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