One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

By checking out the USDA zone info for South Bend it's a good idea to determine 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 when the weather gets warmer.

Since oleander are not cold tolerant it's necessary to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant oleander in South Bend 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your oleander may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your oleander 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 April 15 in South Bend. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for South Bend may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in South Bend it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your oleander if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for South Bend

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in South Bend

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South Bend.