When to Plant Lunaria in Madison, IL

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.

One way of estimating when to plant lunaria is to refer to the USDA zone info for Madison.


Planting Calendar for Lunaria

Frost tolerance for lunaria: Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant: Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Lunaria do ok in a little bit of cold which means that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

The earliest that you can plant lunaria in Madison is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant lunaria and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lunaria may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lunaria indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Madison the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Madison you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your lunaria in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

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