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.

A way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant geranium is to use the USDA zone info for Rochester.

Planting Calendar for Geranium

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

Since geranium are not cold tolerant you need to wait until after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant geranium in Rochester is May. However, you really should wait until June 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. Any later than that and your geranium may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your geranium indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Rochester. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Rochester is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Rochester you get a frost after May 15 be ready to protect your geranium in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Rochester

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Rochester

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