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 figure out when it's the best time to plant violas by checking out the USDA zone info for Los Banos.

Planting Calendar for Violas

Frost tolerance for violas:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Since violas do well in cold you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Los Banos is January. However, you really should wait until February if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant violas and expect a good harvest is probably October. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your violas may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your violas indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Los Banos and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Los Banos you get surprised by a frost after February 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your violas if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Los Banos

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°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 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Los Banos

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Los Banos.