Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to determine your garden schedule. 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 it's possible to plant geranium is to examine the USDA zone info for Athens.

Planting Calendar for Geranium

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant geranium until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant geranium in Athens 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your geranium may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your geranium indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Athens. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Athens may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Athens it frosts late in the year after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your geranium if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Athens

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Athens

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