One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant pansies is to look at the USDA zone info for Bradford.

Planting Calendar for Pansies

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

You can plant pansies a lot earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant pansies in Bradford 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pansies indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Bradford. It might get as low as -20°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Bradford is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Bradford last frost occurs after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your pansies if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bradford

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Bradford

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