One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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 making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant plectranthus is to use the USDA zone info for Madison.

Planting Calendar for Plectranthus

Frost tolerance for plectranthus:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After all chance of frost has passed.

It's a bad idea to plant plectranthus until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

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

The last month that you can plant plectranthus and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your plectranthus may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your plectranthus indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Madison the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Madison is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Madison you get a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your plectranthus if you have a late frost.

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.