One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

A way of determining when it's a good idea to plant violets is to refer to the USDA zone info for San Rafael.

Planting Calendar for Violets

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

You can plant violets a bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant violets in San Rafael 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 violets and expect a good harvest is probably October. If you wait any later than that and your violets may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your violets indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is January 31 in San Rafael. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for San Rafael is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in San Rafael it frosts late in the year after January 31 so make sure that you are ready to protect your violets if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for San Rafael

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 35°F.

Plants to Grow in San Rafael

You may be interested in your other planting guides for San Rafael.