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.

A way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant pansies is to check out the USDA zone info for Orange.

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 much earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant pansies in Orange 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. If you wait any later than that and your pansies may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your pansies indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Orange the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Orange is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Orange you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your pansies in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Orange

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Orange

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