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.

A way of determining when to plant pansies is to use the USDA zone info for Yakima.

Planting Calendar for Pansies

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

Since pansies do well in cold you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

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

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Yakima. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Yakima may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Yakima you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your pansies in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Yakima

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Yakima

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