Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The USDA zone info for Ionia can be looked at to estimate when it's a good idea to plant geranium.

Planting Calendar for Geranium

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

You should not plant geranium until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant geranium 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 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 really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your geranium indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Ionia. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Ionia is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Ionia it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to cover your geranium in the event of one of those late frosts.

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.