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.

You can determine when it's a good idea to plant gerbera in Downers Grove by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gerbera

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

You can plant gerbera slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant gerbera in Downers Grove 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 gerbera and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your gerbera may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your gerbera indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Downers Grove is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Downers Grove it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your gerbera if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Downers Grove

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 Downers Grove

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Downers Grove.