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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant santolina is to use the USDA zone info for Morehead City.

Planting Calendar for Santolina

Frost tolerance for santolina:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

You can plant santolina earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant santolina in Morehead City 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 santolina and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your santolina may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your santolina indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Morehead City. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Morehead City is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Morehead City you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your santolina if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Morehead City

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Morehead City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Morehead City.