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

In Madison you can figure out when it's the best time to plant geum by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Geum

Frost tolerance for geum:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Geum are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

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

The last month that you can plant geum and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your geum may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your geum 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 March 15 in Madison. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Madison you get a frost after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your geum if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

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