Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant violas by checking out the USDA zone info for Richmond.

Planting Calendar for Violas

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

You can plant violas quite a bit earlier in the year because they are very cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Richmond 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 little bit earlier by starting your violas indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Richmond. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Richmond may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Richmond last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your violas in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Richmond

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 Richmond

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