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.

One way of determining when it's possible to plant violets is to look at the USDA zone info for Ithaca.

Planting Calendar for Violets

Frost tolerance for violets:	Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant:	Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

You can plant violets a bit earlier in the year because they are moderately cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant violets 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 violets and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your violets may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your violets indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Ithaca. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ithaca is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Ithaca there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your violets if you have a surprise late frost.

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.