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.

A way of determining when it's possible to plant santolina is to refer to the USDA zone info for Athens.

Planting Calendar for Santolina

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

Santolina are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant santolina in Athens 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 few weeks earlier by starting your santolina indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Athens the average date of last frost happens on March 15. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Athens may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Athens last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your santolina if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Athens

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 Athens

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