One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant petunias is to check out the USDA zone info for Watchung.

Planting Calendar for Petunias

Frost tolerance for petunias:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Petunias do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant petunias in Watchung 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 petunias and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your petunias may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your petunias indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Watchung. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Watchung is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Watchung you get a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your petunias if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Watchung

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°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 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Watchung

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