Honeywort · Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
When to sow honeyworts in Nanjing
Main outdoor window
28 Feb - 21 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 March
In Nanjing, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
19 May - 8 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 Nanjing
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
17 Jan - 7 Feb
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
28 Feb - 21 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
28 Feb - 21 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
In flower
19 May - 8 Jun
Honeyworts through the year
Against the frost risk in Nanjing
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 Nanjing.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Nanjing is zone 8b, 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 258 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 Nanjing
Other flowers to time
Growing honeyworts in Nanjing
When should I plant honeyworts in Nanjing?
Aim for 28 Feb - 21 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 12 Mar - 2 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will honeyworts be ready to harvest in Nanjing?
Expect to start picking around 19 May - 8 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.