When to Plant Geranium in Fort Collins, CO

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of estimating when you can plant geranium is to look at the USDA zone info for Fort Collins.


Planting Calendar for Geranium

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

Since geranium are not cold tolerant it is important to wait until after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant geranium
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant geranium
Probably not a good time to plant geranium

The earliest that you can plant geranium in Fort Collins 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 geranium and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your geranium may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your geranium indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Fort Collins. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Fort Collins is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Fort Collins you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your geranium in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Fort Collins

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°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 -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Fort Collins

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Fort Collins.