One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

You can figure out when it's the best time to plant pansies in Marion by checking out 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 quite a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant pansies in Marion 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. Starting your pansies indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Marion is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Marion you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your pansies in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Marion

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 Marion

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