Larkspur · Tétouan, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, Morocco
When to sow larkspurs in Tétouan
Main outdoor window
7-28 Jan
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
4 February
In Tétouan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
7-27 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 Tétouan
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.
Sow direct
7-28 Jan
Four weeks before your last frost.
In flower
7-27 Apr
Larkspurs through the year
Against the frost risk in Tétouan
Why these dates
Sow direct four weeks before the last frost, into cool soil - the seed germinates below 15C and often refuses above 18C, which is why late sowings fail. Do not start it indoors; the taproot makes transplanting unreliable. Chilling the seed in a fridge for a fortnight before sowing improves germination markedly.
Hardy to about -12C as a seedling, so autumn sowing works well in zone 7 and milder and produces plants twice the size of spring-sown ones. Collapses in humid heat and will not persist through a subtropical summer.
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. Larkspurs are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Tétouan.
Tétouan sits in zone 10b, 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.
Nearby
Larkspurs in places close by
Also in Tétouan
Other flowers to time
Growing larkspurs in Tétouan
When should I plant larkspurs in Tétouan?
Aim for 7-28 Jan in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 7-28 Jan - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will larkspurs be ready to harvest in Tétouan?
Expect to start picking around 7-27 Apr, based on 90 to 110 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will larkspurs tolerate?
Hardy to about -12C as a seedling, so autumn sowing works well in zone 7 and milder and produces plants twice the size of spring-sown ones. Collapses in humid heat and will not persist through a subtropical summer.