One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

In Salem you can determine when it's the best time to plant gomphrena by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gomphrena

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

Gomphrena do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant gomphrena in Salem 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 gomphrena and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your gomphrena may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your gomphrena indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Salem. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Salem may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Salem you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your gomphrena if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Salem

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