Bishop's flower · Xiaogan, Hubei, China
When to sow bishop's flowers in Xiaogan
Main outdoor window
12 Feb - 12 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
5 March
In Xiaogan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
23 May - 22 Jun
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Xiaogan
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
8 Jan - 5 Feb
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
12 Feb - 12 Mar
Three weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
19 Feb - 19 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
In flower
23 May - 22 Jun
Bishop's flowers through the year
Against the frost risk in Xiaogan
Why these dates
Sow direct three weeks before the last frost, or start indoors eight weeks before it in modules - it moves reasonably well when small, unlike most umbellifers. Support a stand with a single row of netting; at 1.2m it goes over in wind. An autumn sowing gives the strongest stems.
Hardy to about -12C as a young plant, which makes it one of the most reliable hardy annuals for autumn sowing in zone 7 and milder. Tolerates heat better than most of this group.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Bishop's flowers are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Xiaogan.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Xiaogan is zone 8b, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
The median frost-free season here is 270 days, against 100 to 130 days to first flower for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Xiaogan
Other flowers to time
Growing bishop's flowers in Xiaogan
When should I plant bishop's flowers in Xiaogan?
Aim for 12 Feb - 12 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 25 Feb - 25 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will bishop's flowers be ready to harvest in Xiaogan?
Expect to start picking around 23 May - 22 Jun, based on 100 to 130 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will bishop's flowers tolerate?
Hardy to about -12C as a young plant, which makes it one of the most reliable hardy annuals for autumn sowing in zone 7 and milder. Tolerates heat better than most of this group.