One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

You should be able to figure out when to plant fuchsia by looking at the USDA zone info for Ionia.

Planting Calendar for Fuchsia

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

You can not plant fuchsia until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant fuchsia in Ionia 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 fuchsia and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your fuchsia may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your fuchsia indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Ionia is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Ionia it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your fuchsia in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ionia

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 Ionia

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