Honeywort · Queens, New York, United States
When to sow honeyworts in Queens
Main outdoor window
15 Mar - 5 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
29 March
In Queens, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
3-23 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 Queens
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
1-22 Feb
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
15 Mar - 5 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
15 Mar - 5 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost.
In flower
3-23 Jun
Honeyworts through the year
Against the frost risk in Queens
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 Queens.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Queens is zone 8a, 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 249 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 Queens
Other flowers to time
Growing honeyworts in Queens
When should I plant honeyworts in Queens?
Aim for 15 Mar - 5 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 25 Mar - 15 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will honeyworts be ready to harvest in Queens?
Expect to start picking around 3-23 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.