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

In Lancaster you can figure out when it's the best time to plant purple rock cress by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Purple Rock Cress

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

Purple Rock Cress do ok in a bit of cold which means that you can plant them a lot earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant purple rock cress in Lancaster 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 purple rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your purple rock cress may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your purple rock cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on March 15 in Lancaster. You can expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Lancaster is not always accurate the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Lancaster you get a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your purple rock cress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Lancaster

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 Lancaster

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