Grecian windflower · Anshun, Guizhou, China
When to sow grecian windflowers in Anshun
Main outdoor window
20 Oct - 3 Nov
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
6 March
In Anshun, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Mar - 30 Apr
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 Anshun
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.
Plant the tubers
20 Oct - 3 Nov
Four to six weeks before your first frost, so roots form before the ground cools.
In flower
1 Mar - 30 Apr
Grecian windflowers through the year
Against the frost risk in Anshun
Why these dates
Soak the tubers overnight before planting - they arrive bone dry and dehydrated tubers frequently fail. Plant 5cm deep in early autumn, any way up; the growing point is impossible to identify and the tuber sorts itself out.
Hardy to about -20C. Flowers early enough that a hard frost sometimes catches open blooms, which recover. Goes fully dormant by midsummer and tolerates dry summer shade better than most spring bulbs.
Grecian windflowers are anchored to the first autumn frost rather than the last spring one, so the planting window on this page counts backwards from the end of the season in Anshun instead of forwards from its start.
Anshun sits in zone 9a, which is milder than this crop wants, and a winter that never really arrives is its own problem. The dates below still describe the right time of year; the open question is survival rather than timing.
The median frost-free season here is 270 days, against 140 to 180 days to first flower for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Anshun
Other flowers to time
Growing grecian windflowers in Anshun
When should I plant grecian windflowers in Anshun?
Aim for 20 Oct - 3 Nov in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 5-19 Oct - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will grecian windflowers be ready to harvest in Anshun?
Expect to start picking around 1 Mar - 30 Apr, based on 140 to 180 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will grecian windflowers tolerate?
Hardy to about -20C. Flowers early enough that a hard frost sometimes catches open blooms, which recover. Goes fully dormant by midsummer and tolerates dry summer shade better than most spring bulbs.