One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The USDA zone info for Smithville should be looked at to estimate when it's the best time 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.

You can plant gerbera just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant gerbera in Smithville 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 fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your gerbera indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Smithville may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Smithville you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your gerbera if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Smithville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

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

Plants to Grow in Smithville

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