When to Plant Lunaria in Portsmouth, VA

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.

You can figure out when it's possible to plant lunaria in Portsmouth by checking out the USDA zone info.


Planting Calendar for Lunaria

Frost tolerance for lunaria: Tolerant of some frost.
When to plant: Up to 5 weeks before last frost.

Since lunaria are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant lunaria
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant lunaria
Probably not a good time to plant lunaria

The earliest that you can plant lunaria in Portsmouth 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 lunaria and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your lunaria may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your lunaria indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Portsmouth. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Portsmouth is just an average the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Portsmouth it frosts late in the year after March 15 so always be ready to protect your lunaria in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Portsmouth

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 Portsmouth

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