One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant petunias is to examine the USDA zone info for Jacksonville.

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.

You can plant petunias just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant petunias in Jacksonville 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 petunias and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your petunias may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your petunias indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Jacksonville. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Jacksonville and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Jacksonville it frosts late in the year after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your petunias in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Jacksonville

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 Jacksonville

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