When to Plant Violas in Urbandale, IA

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

The USDA zone info for Urbandale should be reffered to in order to estimate when it's a good idea to plant violas.


Planting Calendar for Violas

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

You can plant violas much earlier in the year because they do well in cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant violas
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant violas
Probably not a good time to plant violas

The earliest that you can plant violas in Urbandale 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your violas may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your violas indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Urbandale the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Urbandale is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Urbandale last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your violas if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Urbandale

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 Urbandale

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