One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

A way of figuring out when you can plant gerbera is to look at the USDA zone info for Martinsville.

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.

Gerbera tend to make it in a tiny bit of cold which means that 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 Martinsville 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. 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

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Martinsville. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Martinsville may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Martinsville last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your gerbera if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Martinsville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Martinsville

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