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.

In Charleston you can determine when to plant gazania by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Gazania

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

Gazania do well in very little cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gazania in Charleston is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant gazania and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your gazania may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your gazania indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Charleston. It might get as low as 20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Charleston is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Charleston last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to protect your gazania if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Charleston

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°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 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Charleston

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