One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant violets is to refer to the USDA zone info for Skokie.

Planting Calendar for Violets

Frost tolerance for violets:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Violets are moderately cold tolerant which means that you can start planting them earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant violets in Skokie 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 violets and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your violets may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your violets indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Skokie the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Skokie is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Skokie you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your violets in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Skokie

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Skokie

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