When to Plant Garden cress in Wilmington, NC

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of determining when it's possible to plant garden cress is to check out the USDA zone info for Wilmington.


Planting Calendar for Garden cress

Frost tolerance for garden cress: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost.

Garden cress require warm weather which means that it is necessary to 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 garden cress
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant garden cress
Probably not a good time to plant garden cress

The earliest that you can plant garden cress in Wilmington 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 garden cress and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your garden cress indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Wilmington the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Wilmington and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Wilmington you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your garden cress if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Wilmington

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)November 15
Lowest Expected Low10°F
Highest Expected Low15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Wilmington

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