The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant santolina is to refer to the USDA zone info for Madison.

Planting Calendar for Santolina

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

Santolina do ok in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant santolina in Madison 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 santolina and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your santolina may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your santolina indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Madison. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Madison and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Madison it frosts late in the year after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your santolina if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

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