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.

It's possible to estimate when it's a good idea to plant platycodon by referring to the USDA zone info for Gulf Shores.

Planting Calendar for Platycodon

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

Since platycodon are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant platycodon 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 platycodon and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your platycodon may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your platycodon indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Gulf Shores. You should expect an average low temperature of 20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Gulf Shores is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Gulf Shores it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to protect your platycodon if you have a surprise late frost.

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 Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°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.