When to sow bishop's flowers in Phnom Penh

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 Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh sits in zone 13a, 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.

See every crop timed for Phnom Penh →