The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. 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 violas is to examine the USDA zone info for Oak Harbor.

Planting Calendar for Violas

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

Violas are very cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant violas in Oak Harbor 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 really do well. If you are starting your violas indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Oak Harbor. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Oak Harbor is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Oak Harbor last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to cover your violas in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Oak Harbor

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

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

Plants to Grow in Oak Harbor

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Oak Harbor.