One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

A way of determining when to plant violas is to examine the USDA zone info for Bethel Park.

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 pretty solid cold which tells us that you can plant them much earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Bethel Park 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 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 Bethel Park. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Bethel Park is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Bethel Park you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your violas if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bethel Park

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-5°F
Highest Expected Low	0°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 0°F.

Plants to Grow in Bethel Park

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Bethel Park.