One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when to plant roses is to refer to the USDA zone info for Athens.

Planting Calendar for Roses

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

You can plant roses a little earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant roses in Athens 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 roses and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your roses may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your roses indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Athens. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Athens is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Athens last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your roses in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Athens

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 Athens

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