Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Marion you can figure out when you can plant pansies by using the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Pansies

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

Pansies tend to make it in quite a bit of cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Marion. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Marion is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Marion it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your pansies if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Marion

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 Marion

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