The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of determining when it's a good idea to plant violas is to look at the USDA zone info for Atlanta.

Planting Calendar for Violas

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

Violas can survive in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Atlanta 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 violas and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your violas may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your violas indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Atlanta the average date of last frost happens on March 15. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Atlanta is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Atlanta you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your violas if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Atlanta

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Atlanta

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