One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the 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.

One way of making a decision about when you can plant tritoma is to look at the USDA zone info for Federal Way.

Planting Calendar for Tritoma

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

You can plant tritoma much earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant tritoma 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 tritoma and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your tritoma may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your tritoma indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Federal Way may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Federal Way last frost occurs after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your tritoma if you have a 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.