When to Plant Garden cress in Richmond, VA

One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

A way of making a decision about when you can plant garden cress is to examine the USDA zone info for Richmond.


Planting Calendar for Garden cress

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

Since garden cress are not cold tolerant you have to wait until after all chance of frost has passed 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 Richmond 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. If you wait any later than that and your garden cress may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your garden cress indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Richmond. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Richmond is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Richmond last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your garden cress in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Richmond

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 Richmond

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