Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Gainesville should be reffered to in order to estimate when you can plant osteospermum.

Planting Calendar for Osteospermum

Frost tolerance for osteospermum:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since osteospermum are moderately cold tolerant you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant osteospermum in Gainesville 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 osteospermum and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your osteospermum may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your osteospermum indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Gainesville. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 5°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Gainesville is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Gainesville it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your osteospermum if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Gainesville

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 Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 Gainesville

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