When to Plant Chinese chives in Zone 1a

One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the 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 estimating when you can plant chinese chives is to refer to the USDA zone info for Zone 1a.


Planting Calendar for Chinese chives

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

You can plant chinese chives a little bit earlier in the year because they are one of those plants that can tolerate a little bit of cold weather.

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

The earliest that you can plant chinese chives in Zone 1a is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant chinese chives and expect a good harvest is probably July. If you wait any later than that and your chinese chives may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your chinese chives indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on June 15 in Zone 1a. You should expect an average low temperature of -60°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Zone 1a is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Zone 1a you get a frost after June 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your chinese chives if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 1a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 1a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)June 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)July 15
Lowest Expected Low-60°F
Highest Expected Low-55°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -60°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -55°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 1a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 1a.