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.

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant gerbera is to use the USDA zone info for Douglas.

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 slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant gerbera in Douglas is April. However, you really should wait until May 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your gerbera may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your gerbera indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Douglas. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Douglas is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Douglas last frost occurs after May 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your gerbera if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Douglas

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Douglas

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