One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Sterling you can determine when it's a good idea to plant statice by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Statice

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

Statice do ok in a little bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

The last month that you can plant statice and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your statice may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your statice indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Sterling the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should 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. Since half of the time in Sterling you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your statice in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.