One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

By using the USDA zone info for State College it's possible to determine when it's possible to plant gerbera.

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.

Since gerbera are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant gerbera in State College 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. If you wait any later than that and your gerbera may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your gerbera indoors.

Last Frost Date

In State College the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for State College is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in State College you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your gerbera in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for State College

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 State College

You may be interested in your other planting guides for State College.