One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to determine when it's the best time to plant rock cress by looking at the USDA zone info for Virginia.

Planting Calendar for Rock Cress

Frost tolerance for rock cress:	Very tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 7 weeks before last frost.

Rock Cress do ok in quite a bit of cold which means that you can plant them earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Virginia is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your rock cress may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your rock cress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Virginia. You should expect an average low temperature of -35°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Virginia may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Virginia you get a frost after May 15 be ready to cover your rock cress in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Virginia

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-35°F
Highest Expected Low	-30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -30°F.

Plants to Grow in Virginia

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