One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

The first opportunity to plant gerbera in Petal can be figured out by reviewing 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.

Gerbera do ok in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant gerbera in Petal 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 fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your gerbera indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Petal. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Petal is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Petal there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to protect your gerbera in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Petal

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 Petal

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