One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Elmwood Park you can estimate when it's possible to plant pansies by looking at 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 are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pansies in Elmwood Park 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. Any later than that and your pansies may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your pansies indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Elmwood Park is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Elmwood Park you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your pansies in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Elmwood Park

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 Elmwood Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Elmwood Park.