One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when you can plant gomphrena is to examine the USDA zone info for Columbia.

Planting Calendar for Gomphrena

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

You can plant gomphrena a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant gomphrena in Columbia 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 gomphrena and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your gomphrena may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your gomphrena indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Columbia. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Columbia is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Columbia last frost occurs after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your gomphrena if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Columbia

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 Columbia

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