When to sow canterbury bells in Renca

Why these dates

Sow on the surface in early summer, six weeks after the last frost, and move the rosettes to their final position in autumn. Flowers the following June for about five weeks. Deadheading the main spike brings a lighter second flush from the side shoots.

Hardy to about -18C as a rosette, though it dislikes a wet winter and is safer on free-draining ground or with a mulch of grit around the crown.

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. Canterbury bells are timed with planting out 20 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Renca.

Renca sits in zone 9b, 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.

This is a two-season crop, so the dates above describe a sowing in one year and a flowering in the next. The plant spends the winter in the ground as a small rosette, which is why the frost-free season in Renca does not limit it the way it would limit a tomato: it is not trying to finish before the cold arrives, it is trying to be well enough rooted to sit through it. Sowing too late is the real risk, because a plant that goes into winter undersized often fails to flower at all the following year.

See every crop timed for Renca →