When to Plant Trailing Portulaca in Westminster, MD

One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant trailing portulaca is to look at the USDA zone info for Westminster.


Planting Calendar for Trailing Portulaca

Frost tolerance for trailing portulaca: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

Trailing Portulaca require warm weather which tells us that you really should wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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 Westminster 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 grow to maturity. Starting your trailing portulaca indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Westminster. You can expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Westminster is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Westminster there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to cover your trailing portulaca in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Westminster

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 Westminster

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