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

It's a good idea to determine when to plant coral bells by using the USDA zone info for Salem.

Planting Calendar for Coral Bells

Frost tolerance for coral bells:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Coral Bells do well in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant coral bells in Salem 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 coral bells and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your coral bells may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your coral bells indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Salem. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Salem is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Salem it frosts late in the year after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your coral bells if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Salem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Salem

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