One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when to plant monarda is to check out the USDA zone info for Sun Prairie.

Planting Calendar for Monarda

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

Monarda do ok in moderate cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Sun Prairie. You should expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Sun Prairie is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Sun Prairie there is a last frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your monarda in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Sun Prairie

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 Sun Prairie

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Sun Prairie.