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.

It's possible to estimate when you can plant rock cress by checking out the USDA zone info for Vancouver.

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 are one of those plants that can tolerate quite a bit of cold weather which means that you can plant them much earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant rock cress in Vancouver 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. Any later than that and your rock cress may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your rock cress indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Vancouver. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Vancouver is an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Vancouver it frosts late in the year after March 15 so make sure that you are ready to cover your rock cress in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Vancouver

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Vancouver

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