One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

It's possible to figure out when it's possible to plant violas by checking out the USDA zone info for South Elgin.

Planting Calendar for Violas

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

Since violas are very cold tolerant you can plant them much earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant violas in South Elgin 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 fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your violas indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in South Elgin. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for South Elgin is an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in South Elgin you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your violas if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for South Elgin

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 South Elgin

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South Elgin.