One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the 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.

The USDA zone info for Sterling can be reffered to in order to determine when it's possible to plant violas.

Planting Calendar for Violas

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

You can plant violas much earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Sterling 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your violas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your violas indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Sterling. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Sterling 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 Sterling you get a frost after April 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your violas if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Sterling

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 Sterling

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