One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's the best time to plant geranium is to examine the USDA zone info for Tempe.

Planting Calendar for Geranium

Frost tolerance for geranium:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost.

It's a bad idea to plant geranium until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant geranium in Tempe 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 geranium and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your geranium may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your geranium indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Tempe. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Tempe is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Tempe you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your geranium in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Tempe

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°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 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Tempe

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