When to Plant Trailing Portulaca in New Brunswick, NJ

One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

A common way of figuring out when to plant trailing portulaca is to use the USDA zone info for New Brunswick.


Planting Calendar for Trailing Portulaca

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

Since trailing portulaca do not do well in cold weather you must wait until after the last frost has passed 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 New Brunswick 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 little bit earlier by starting your trailing portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

In New Brunswick the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for New Brunswick is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in New Brunswick you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so always be ready to cover your trailing portulaca if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for New Brunswick

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 New Brunswick

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Brunswick.