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.

The USDA zone info for Shelby should be reviewed to estimate when it's possible 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 earlier in the year because they do well in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant osteospermum in Shelby 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your osteospermum may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your osteospermum indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Shelby. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Shelby is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Shelby last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your osteospermum in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shelby

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Shelby

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