Daffodil · Xinzhou, Shanxi, China
When to sow daffodils in Xinzhou
Main outdoor window
25 Aug - 8 Sep
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
27 April
In Xinzhou, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Mar - 30 Apr
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 Xinzhou
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.
Plant the bulbs
25 Aug - 8 Sep
Four to six weeks before your first frost, so roots form before the ground cools.
In flower
1 Mar - 30 Apr
Daffodils through the year
Against the frost risk in Xinzhou
Why these dates
Plant early - four to eight weeks before the first frost, and earlier than tulips. Daffodils make roots in autumn warmth and want that head start. Plant at twice the bulb's height, and leave the foliage to yellow completely after flowering, because next year's flower is built during those six weeks.
Hardy to about -30C, and undamaged by frost on the emerged leaves; the flower buds tolerate a hard frost that flattens everything else. Needs around ten weeks below 9C, slightly less than a tulip, so daffodils persist a zone warmer than tulips do.
Daffodils are anchored to the first autumn frost rather than the last spring one, so the planting window on this page counts backwards from the end of the season in Xinzhou instead of forwards from its start.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Xinzhou is zone 6a, 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 162 days, against 140 to 190 days to first flower for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Xinzhou
Other flowers to time
Growing daffodils in Xinzhou
When should I plant daffodils in Xinzhou?
Aim for 25 Aug - 8 Sep in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 12-26 Aug - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will daffodils be ready to harvest in Xinzhou?
Expect to start picking around 1 Mar - 30 Apr, based on 140 to 190 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will daffodils tolerate?
Hardy to about -30C, and undamaged by frost on the emerged leaves; the flower buds tolerate a hard frost that flattens everything else. Needs around ten weeks below 9C, slightly less than a tulip, so daffodils persist a zone warmer than tulips do.