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.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant oleander is to examine the USDA zone info for Sturgis.

Planting Calendar for Oleander

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

You should not plant oleander until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant oleander in Sturgis 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your oleander indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Sturgis. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Sturgis and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Sturgis you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your oleander if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sturgis

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 Sturgis

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