When to Plant Lunaria in Washington, DC

One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The USDA zone info for Washington can be looked at to determine when it's the best time to plant lunaria.


Planting Calendar for Lunaria

Frost tolerance for lunaria: Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant: Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Lunaria do ok in mild cold which tells us that you can plant them a little earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant lunaria
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant lunaria
Probably not a good time to plant lunaria

The earliest that you can plant lunaria in Washington 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 lunaria and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lunaria may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your lunaria indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Washington. You can expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Washington is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Washington there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your lunaria if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Washington

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low0°F
Highest Expected Low5°F

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

Plants to Grow in Washington

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