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.

In South Milwaukee you can estimate when it's a good idea to plant centaurea by looking at the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Centaurea

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

You can plant centaurea a bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in South Milwaukee. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for South Milwaukee is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in South Milwaukee you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your centaurea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for South 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 South Milwaukee

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