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

It's possible to determine when it's a good idea to plant arctotis by using the USDA zone info for Philadelphia.

Planting Calendar for Arctotis

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

You can plant arctotis a little earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant arctotis in Philadelphia 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 arctotis and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your arctotis may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your arctotis indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on March 15 in Philadelphia. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Philadelphia is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Philadelphia you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your arctotis if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Philadelphia

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 Philadelphia

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