Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to estimate when you can plant petunias by referring to the USDA zone info for Baton Rouge.

Planting Calendar for Petunias

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

Petunias do ok in very little cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Baton Rouge. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Baton Rouge is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Baton Rouge it frosts late in the year after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your petunias if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Baton Rouge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°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 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Baton Rouge

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Baton Rouge.