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.

One way of determining when it's a good idea to plant pansies is to refer to the USDA zone info for Suffolk.

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 quite a bit 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 Suffolk 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. Any later than that and your pansies may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your pansies indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Suffolk the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Suffolk is just an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Suffolk last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your pansies if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Suffolk

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Suffolk

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