Cornflower · Vologda, Vologda Oblast, Russia
When to sow cornflowers in Vologda
Main outdoor window
2-30 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 May
In Vologda, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
6-26 Jul
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 Vologda
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
2-30 Apr
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
2-30 May
Held back until the soil is warm enough for this crop. The frost date on its own would say 23 Apr, which is too cold for it to start.
Plant out
2-30 May
Held back until the soil is warm enough for this crop. The frost date on its own would say 30 Apr, which is too cold for it to start.
In flower
6-26 Jul
Cornflowers through the year
Against the frost risk in Vologda
Why these dates
Sow direct three weeks before the last frost, thinly and where it is to flower - it resents transplanting once the taproot is down. Deadhead relentlessly, because a plant allowed to set seed stops flowering within a fortnight. An autumn sowing gives much taller, sturdier plants.
Hardy to about -10C as a young plant, which is what makes autumn sowing possible in zone 7 and milder. Dislikes humid heat and finishes early in a hot summer.
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. Cornflowers are timed from 6 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 Vologda.
With one correction, which is the note at the top of the page: the offset alone would put this crop in soil that is still too cold for it. Where the frost date and the soil temperature disagree, the dates here follow the soil, because a seed in cold ground either rots or waits, and a sowing made a fortnight later usually overtakes it.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Vologda is zone 4a, 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 146 days, against 65 to 85 days to first flower for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Vologda
Other flowers to time
Growing cornflowers in Vologda
When should I plant cornflowers in Vologda?
Aim for 2-30 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 11 May - 8 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
Can I plant cornflowers earlier in Vologda?
Frost is finished by about 23 Apr, but the soil is still too cold. Cornflowers will not start until it reaches 7°C (44.6°F), and here that is around 2 May. Going in earlier usually means seed that rots or transplants that sit and sulk, and a later sowing catches them up.
When will cornflowers be ready to harvest in Vologda?
Expect to start picking around 6-26 Jul, based on 65 to 85 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will cornflowers tolerate?
Hardy to about -10C as a young plant, which is what makes autumn sowing possible in zone 7 and milder. Dislikes humid heat and finishes early in a hot summer.