One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

By reviewing the USDA zone info for Madison you should be able to estimate when it's the best time to plant common hollyhock.

Planting Calendar for Common hollyhock

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

Common hollyhock are moderately cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant common hollyhock 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 common hollyhock and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your common hollyhock may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your common hollyhock indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Madison. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Madison is an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Madison there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your common hollyhock if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°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 -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

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