Honeywort · Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China
When to sow honeyworts in Shijiazhuang
Main outdoor window
17 Mar - 7 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
31 March
In Shijiazhuang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
5-25 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 Shijiazhuang
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
3-24 Feb
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
17 Mar - 7 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
17 Mar - 7 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost.
In flower
5-25 Jun
Honeyworts through the year
Against the frost risk in Shijiazhuang
Why these dates
Sow indoors eight weeks before the last frost and plant out two weeks before, or sow direct two weeks before it. The seed is large and germinates best in the dark, so cover it properly. Self-seeds readily on light soil and comes true.
Hardy to about -8C, so autumn sowing works in zone 8 and milder. Needs sharp drainage above all: it rots in a wet winter long before the cold reaches it.
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. Honeyworts 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 Shijiazhuang.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Shijiazhuang 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 80 to 100 days to first flower for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Shijiazhuang
Other flowers to time
Growing honeyworts in Shijiazhuang
When should I plant honeyworts in Shijiazhuang?
Aim for 17 Mar - 7 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 31 Mar - 21 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will honeyworts be ready to harvest in Shijiazhuang?
Expect to start picking around 5-25 Jun, based on 80 to 100 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will honeyworts tolerate?
Hardy to about -8C, so autumn sowing works in zone 8 and milder. Needs sharp drainage above all: it rots in a wet winter long before the cold reaches it.