One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

By using the USDA zone info for Spirit Lake it's a good idea to figure out when you can plant geranium.

Planting Calendar for Geranium

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

Geranium are not cold tolerant which tells us that you have to wait until it warms up after all chance of frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant geranium in Spirit Lake 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. If you are starting your geranium indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Spirit Lake is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Spirit Lake there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your geranium in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Spirit Lake

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 Spirit Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Spirit Lake.