One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant gerbera is to look at the USDA zone info for Saratoga Springs.

Planting Calendar for Gerbera

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

Gerbera do well in a tiny bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gerbera in Saratoga Springs 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 gerbera and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your gerbera may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your gerbera indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Saratoga Springs the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Saratoga Springs is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Saratoga Springs last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your gerbera in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Saratoga Springs

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Saratoga Springs

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Saratoga Springs.