One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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.

You should be able to estimate when it's possible to plant sweet williams by looking at the USDA zone info for Salem.

Planting Calendar for Sweet Williams

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

Sweet Williams are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant sweet williams in Salem 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 sweet williams and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your sweet williams may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your sweet williams indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Salem the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Salem and it is different every year. Half of the time in Salem it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your sweet williams if you have a 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.