One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

You should be able to figure out when it's possible to plant phlox by looking at the USDA zone info for West Salem.

Planting Calendar for Phlox

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

Phlox do well in moderate cold which means that you can plant them a little bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant phlox in West Salem is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant phlox and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your phlox may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your phlox indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on May 15 in West Salem. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for West Salem is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in West Salem last frost occurs after May 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your phlox in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for West Salem

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in West Salem

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