The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of making a decision about when you can plant gaillardia is to examine the USDA zone info for Lafayette.

Planting Calendar for Gaillardia

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

You can plant gaillardia just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Lafayette. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Lafayette is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Lafayette there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your gaillardia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lafayette

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Lafayette

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