One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant osteospermum is to look at the USDA zone info for Aberdeen.

Planting Calendar for Osteospermum

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

Since osteospermum are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant osteospermum in Aberdeen 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. If you wait any later than that and your osteospermum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your osteospermum indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Aberdeen. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Aberdeen may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Aberdeen last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your osteospermum if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Aberdeen

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Aberdeen

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