Love-in-a-mist · Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
When to sow love-in-a-mist in Shenzhen
Main outdoor window
not outdoors here
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
no spring frost
In Shenzhen, on your chosen risk.
First autumn frost
no autumn frost
The far end of the outdoor season.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Shenzhen
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.
Love-in-a-mist through the year
Against the frost risk in Shenzhen
Why these dates
Sow direct three weeks before the last frost and thin to 20cm. It flowers for about six weeks and then goes to seed, so sow a second batch three weeks later if you want it into late summer. Leave the last flowers to pod and it will sow itself for next year.
Hardy to about -10C, so an autumn sowing overwinters easily in zone 7 and warmer and flowers in late spring. Short-lived in heat and finished by midsummer in a hot climate.
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. Love-in-a-mist are timed for direct sowing 3 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Shenzhen.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Shenzhen is zone 11a, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
Also in Shenzhen
Other flowers to time
Growing love-in-a-mist in Shenzhen
How much frost will love-in-a-mist tolerate?
Hardy to about -10C, so an autumn sowing overwinters easily in zone 7 and warmer and flowers in late spring. Short-lived in heat and finished by midsummer in a hot climate.