When to Plant Petunias in Gulf Shores, AL

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

You can figure out when it's possible to plant petunias in Gulf Shores by using the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Petunias

Frost tolerance for petunias: Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant: Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Petunias can survive in a tiny bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant petunias
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant petunias
Probably not a good time to plant petunias

The earliest that you can plant petunias in Gulf Shores 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 petunias and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your petunias may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your petunias indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in Gulf Shores. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Gulf Shores and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Gulf Shores last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your petunias in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Gulf Shores

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)December 15
Lowest Expected Low20°F
Highest Expected Low25°F

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

Plants to Grow in Gulf Shores

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Gulf Shores.