One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of determining when to plant violas is to look at the USDA zone info for Forest.

Planting Calendar for Violas

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

Violas do ok in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Forest 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. Starting your violas indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Forest is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Forest you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your violas if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Forest

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Forest

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