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.

The best time to plant pansies in Dayton can be figured out by referring to 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.

Since pansies do well in cold you can plant them earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant pansies in Dayton is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant pansies and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your pansies may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your pansies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on May 15 in Dayton. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Dayton may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Dayton last frost occurs after May 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your pansies if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dayton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Dayton

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