Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant gazania in Rifle can be estimated by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gazania

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

Since gazania are barely cold tolerant you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gazania in Rifle 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 gazania and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your gazania may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your gazania indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Rifle. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Rifle 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 Rifle you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your gazania if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rifle

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 Rifle

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