When to Plant Trailing Portulaca in Cambridge, MA

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.

You will be able to estimate when it's a good idea to plant trailing portulaca by checking out the USDA zone info for Cambridge.


Planting Calendar for Trailing Portulaca

Frost tolerance for trailing portulaca: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

You can not plant trailing portulaca until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

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

The earliest that you can plant trailing portulaca in Cambridge is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant trailing portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your trailing portulaca may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your trailing portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Cambridge. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -5°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Cambridge is not always accurate the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Cambridge you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your trailing portulaca if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cambridge

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

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

Plants to Grow in Cambridge

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