One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

You will be able to determine when it's possible to plant gerbera by referring to the USDA zone info for Rochester.

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.

Gerbera tend to make it in some cold which means 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 gerbera in Rochester is April. However, you really should wait until May 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. Any later than that and your gerbera may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your gerbera indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on May 15 in Rochester. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Rochester is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Rochester it frosts late in the year after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your gerbera if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Rochester

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