One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You will be able to determine when it's possible to plant rosemary by referring to the USDA zone info for Federal Way.

Planting Calendar for Rosemary

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

Rosemary are very cold tolerant which means that you can get them planted much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant rosemary in Federal Way 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 rosemary and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your rosemary may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your rosemary indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Federal Way. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Federal Way is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Federal Way last frost occurs after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your rosemary if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Federal Way

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 Federal Way

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Federal Way.