Pansy · Manhattan, New York, United States
When to sow pansies in Manhattan
Main outdoor window
18 Mar - 22 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
15 April
In Manhattan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
16 Jun - 16 Jul
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Manhattan
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
21 Jan - 25 Feb
Twelve weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
18 Mar - 22 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost.
In flower
16 Jun - 16 Jul
Pansies through the year
Against the frost risk in Manhattan
Why these dates
Start indoors twelve weeks before the last frost and plant out four weeks before it - pansies want cool soil and stop flowering in summer heat. For winter and early spring flowers, sow in midsummer and plant out in early autumn, six weeks before the first frost, so the roots establish before the cold.
Hardy to about -15C and flowers whenever the temperature rises above about 4C, which is why it blooms in midwinter in zone 8. Dies out in summer heat above roughly 30C rather than in the cold.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Pansies are timed from 12 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Manhattan.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Manhattan is zone 7a, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
The median frost-free season here is 203 days, against 90 to 120 days to first flower for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Manhattan
Other flowers to time
Growing pansies in Manhattan
When should I plant pansies in Manhattan?
Aim for 18 Mar - 22 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 27 Mar - 1 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will pansies be ready to harvest in Manhattan?
Expect to start picking around 16 Jun - 16 Jul, based on 90 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will pansies tolerate?
Hardy to about -15C and flowers whenever the temperature rises above about 4C, which is why it blooms in midwinter in zone 8. Dies out in summer heat above roughly 30C rather than in the cold.