One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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 estimating when it's a good idea to plant osteospermum is to check out the USDA zone info for Rochelle.

Planting Calendar for Osteospermum

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

Osteospermum do well in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant osteospermum in Rochelle is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant osteospermum and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your osteospermum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your osteospermum indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Rochelle the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Rochelle is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Rochelle it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your osteospermum in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rochelle

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Rochelle

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