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.

It's a good idea to determine when it's possible to plant gazania by referring to the USDA zone info for Columbus.

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.

Since gazania do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant gazania in Columbus 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 gazania and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your gazania may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your gazania indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Columbus. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Columbus is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Columbus there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your gazania in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Columbus

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°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 -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Columbus

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