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.

In Springfield you can determine when it's possible to plant rock cress by checking out the USDA zone info.

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 well in cold which tells us that you can plant them a quite a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Springfield 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 rock cress and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your rock cress may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your rock cress indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Springfield. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Springfield is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Springfield you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your rock cress if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Springfield

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 Low	0°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 Springfield

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