One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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 a good idea to plant santolina is to check out the USDA zone info for Independence.

Planting Calendar for Santolina

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

Santolina do well in cold which means that you can get them planted much earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant santolina in Independence 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. Any later than that and your santolina may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your santolina indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Independence. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Independence is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Independence last frost occurs after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your santolina if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Independence

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Independence

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