One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

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

Planting Calendar for Violas

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

Violas tend to make it in pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them quite a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Richton 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 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 fully mature. Starting your violas indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Richton Park. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Richton Park is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Richton Park you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your violas in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Richton 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 Richton Park

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