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.

By looking at the USDA zone info for Madison you should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant maltese cross.

Planting Calendar for Maltese Cross

Frost tolerance for maltese cross:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Maltese Cross can survive in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant maltese cross 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 maltese cross and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your maltese cross may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your maltese cross indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on May 15 in Madison. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Madison last frost occurs after May 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your maltese cross in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

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 Madison

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