One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant verbena is to check out the USDA zone info for Madison.

Planting Calendar for Verbena

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

You can plant verbena slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant verbena 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 verbena and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your verbena may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your verbena indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Madison. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison is not always accurate 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 April 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your verbena in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Madison

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