Grecian windflower · Hengshui, Hebei, China
When to sow grecian windflowers in Hengshui
Main outdoor window
27 Sep - 11 Oct
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
30 March
In Hengshui, 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 Hengshui
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
27 Sep - 11 Oct
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 Hengshui
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 Hengshui instead of forwards from its start.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Hengshui is zone 7b, 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 223 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 Hengshui
Other flowers to time
Growing grecian windflowers in Hengshui
When should I plant grecian windflowers in Hengshui?
Aim for 27 Sep - 11 Oct in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 17 Sep - 1 Oct - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will grecian windflowers be ready to harvest in Hengshui?
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.