One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 estimating when it's a good idea to plant purple rock cress is to examine the USDA zone info for La Junta.

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 are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can start planting them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant purple rock cress in La Junta 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 all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in La Junta. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for La Junta may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in La Junta it frosts late in the year after April 15 so always be ready to protect your purple rock cress in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for La Junta

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-15°F
Highest Expected Low	-10°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 -10°F.

Plants to Grow in La Junta

You may be interested in your other planting guides for La Junta.