The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant pansies in Ottawa can be estimated 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 frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant pansies in Ottawa 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your pansies may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pansies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Ottawa. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Ottawa is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Ottawa last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your pansies in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ottawa

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 Ottawa

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