Gaura · Fes, Fes-Meknes, Morocco
When to sow gauras in Fes
Main outdoor window
17 Feb - 17 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
3 February
In Fes, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jun - 31 Oct
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 Fes
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 out
17 Feb - 17 Mar
Two weeks after your last frost.
In flower
1 Jun - 31 Oct
Gauras through the year
Against the frost risk in Fes
Why these dates
Plant out after the last frost in the sunniest, best-drained position available. Cut back to 20cm in spring rather than autumn. In cold gardens treat it as a short-lived plant and expect to replace it every three or four years.
Hardy to about -12C in dry soil and much less where winters are wet, which is what limits it far more than absolute cold. Flowers through light autumn frosts.
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. Gauras are timed with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Fes.
Fes sits in zone 10a, 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.
Do not expect a crop in the first year. A plant set out now should give its first worthwhile pick around year 1, and will then produce every year after that, which is what makes the planting decision worth getting right the first time.
Also in Fes
Other flowers to time
Growing gauras in Fes
When should I plant gauras in Fes?
Aim for 17 Feb - 17 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 7 Mar - 4 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will gauras be ready to harvest in Fes?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jun - 31 Oct, based on 100 to 130 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will gauras tolerate?
Hardy to about -12C in dry soil and much less where winters are wet, which is what limits it far more than absolute cold. Flowers through light autumn frosts.