When to Plant Portulaca in Zone 3a

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 figuring out when it's the best time to plant portulaca is to check out the USDA zone info for Zone 3a.

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Planting Calendar for Portulaca

Frost tolerance for portulaca: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After all chance of frost has passed.

Portulaca are not cold tolerant which tells us that you need to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

The earliest that you can plant portulaca in Zone 3a 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 portulaca and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your portulaca may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your portulaca indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Zone 3a. It might get as low as -40°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Zone 3a and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Zone 3a there is a last frost after May 15 so always be ready to protect your portulaca if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 3a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)September 15
Lowest Expected Low-40°F
Highest Expected Low-35°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -40°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -35°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 3a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 3a.