When to Plant Daylily in Madison, WI

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. 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 to plant daylily is to look at the USDA zone info for Madison.


Planting Calendar for Daylily

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

Daylily tend to make it in some cold which means that you can plant them just a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant daylily
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant daylily
Probably not a good time to plant daylily

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

The last month that you can plant daylily and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your daylily may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your daylily indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Madison. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Madison is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Madison there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your daylily in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Madison

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-20°F
Highest Expected Low-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°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.