When to Plant Violas in Buffalo Grove, IL

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.

A way of figuring out when it's possible to plant violas is to refer to the USDA zone info for Buffalo Grove.


Planting Calendar for Violas

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

Violas are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can get them planted much earlier than other frost tender plants.

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 Buffalo Grove 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. Any later than that and your violas may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your violas indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Buffalo Grove the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Buffalo Grove is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Buffalo Grove you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your violas if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Buffalo Grove

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°F

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

Plants to Grow in Buffalo Grove

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Buffalo Grove.