One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant calibrachoa is to look at the USDA zone info for Rome.

Planting Calendar for Calibrachoa

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

Calibrachoa tend to make it in some cold which means that 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 calibrachoa in Rome 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 calibrachoa and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your calibrachoa may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your calibrachoa indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Rome is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Rome you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your calibrachoa if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Rome

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 Rome

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