Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden 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 making a decision about when it's the best time to plant santolina is to examine the USDA zone info for Commerce.

Planting Calendar for Santolina

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

Santolina are very cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant santolina in Commerce 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. If you are starting your santolina indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Commerce the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Commerce is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Commerce there is a last frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your santolina if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Commerce

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 Commerce

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