Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Salem can be looked at to figure out when it's the best time to plant petunias.

Planting Calendar for Petunias

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

Petunias are barely cold tolerant which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant petunias 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 petunias and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your petunias may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your petunias indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Salem. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Salem is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to 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 petunias in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Salem

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