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

The USDA zone info for Ithaca should be used to figure out 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.

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

The earliest that you can plant violas in Ithaca 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. If you wait any later than that and your violas may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your violas indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Ithaca. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Ithaca is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Ithaca there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your violas in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Ithaca

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 Ithaca

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