One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

A way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant osteospermum is to look at the USDA zone info for Marco Island.

Planting Calendar for Osteospermum

Frost tolerance for osteospermum:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Osteospermum do ok in a little bit of cold which tells us that 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 osteospermum in Marco Island is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant osteospermum and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your osteospermum may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your osteospermum indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on January 31 in Marco Island. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Marco Island and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Marco Island you get surprised by a frost after January 31 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your osteospermum if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Marco Island

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in Marco Island

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Marco Island.