When to Plant Petunias in Garden City, NY

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.

You should be able to determine when to plant petunias by checking out the USDA zone info for Garden City.


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 a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant petunias
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant petunias
Probably not a good time to plant petunias

The earliest that you can plant petunias in Garden City 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 fully mature. Starting your petunias indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Garden City the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Garden City and it is different every year. Since half of the time in Garden City you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your petunias in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Garden City

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 Low5°F
Highest Expected Low10°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 Garden City

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Garden City.