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.

The USDA zone info for Petal can be reviewed to determine when it's a good idea to plant osteospermum.

Planting Calendar for Osteospermum

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

You can plant osteospermum a little bit earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant osteospermum in Petal 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 fully mature. Starting your osteospermum indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Petal. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Petal is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Petal you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so always be ready to protect your osteospermum if you have 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.