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.

It's possible to determine when it's the best time to plant regal geranium by using the USDA zone info for Ripon.

Planting Calendar for Regal Geranium

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

Regal Geranium are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant regal geranium in Ripon 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 regal geranium and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your regal geranium may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your regal geranium indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Ripon. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Ripon is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Ripon there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your regal geranium if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ripon

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 Ripon

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