When to Plant Geranium in Milwaukee, WI

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

You should be able to estimate when you can plant geranium by checking out the USDA zone info for Milwaukee.


Planting Calendar for Geranium

Frost tolerance for geranium: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

It's probably a bad idea to plant geranium until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Milwaukee. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Milwaukee and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Milwaukee you get a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your geranium if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Milwaukee

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Milwaukee

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