One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

By using the USDA zone info for Sterling you will be able to determine when it's possible to plant salvia.

Planting Calendar for Salvia

Frost tolerance for salvia:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

You can plant salvia just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant salvia in Sterling is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant salvia and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your salvia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your salvia indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Sterling the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Sterling is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Sterling it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your salvia in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sterling

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 Sterling

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