One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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 Dawson should be reffered to in order to figure out when it's possible to plant purple rock cress.

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 well in cold 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 Dawson 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. If you wait any later than that and your purple rock cress may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your purple rock cress indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Dawson the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dawson is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Dawson it frosts late in the year after March 15 be ready to protect your purple rock cress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dawson

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 Dawson

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