Love-in-a-mist · Zibo, Shandong, China
When to sow love-in-a-mist in Zibo
Main outdoor window
13 Mar - 3 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
3 April
In Zibo, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
22 May - 11 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 Zibo
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
13 Mar - 3 Apr
Three weeks before your last frost.
In flower
22 May - 11 Jun
Love-in-a-mist through the year
Against the frost risk in Zibo
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 Zibo.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Zibo is zone 7b, 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 218 days, against 70 to 90 days to first flower for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Zibo
Other flowers to time
Growing love-in-a-mist in Zibo
When should I plant love-in-a-mist in Zibo?
Aim for 13 Mar - 3 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 23 Mar - 13 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will love-in-a-mist be ready to harvest in Zibo?
Expect to start picking around 22 May - 11 Jun, based on 70 to 90 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
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.