Pansy · Panzhihua, Sichuan, China
When to sow pansies in Panzhihua
Main outdoor window
31 Dec - 4 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
28 January
In Panzhihua, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
31 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 Panzhihua
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.
Start indoors
5 Nov - 10 Dec
Twelve weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
31 Dec - 4 Feb
Four weeks before your last frost.
In flower
31 Mar - 30 Apr
Pansies through the year
Against the frost risk in Panzhihua
Why these dates
Start indoors twelve weeks before the last frost and plant out four weeks before it - pansies want cool soil and stop flowering in summer heat. For winter and early spring flowers, sow in midsummer and plant out in early autumn, six weeks before the first frost, so the roots establish before the cold.
Hardy to about -15C and flowers whenever the temperature rises above about 4C, which is why it blooms in midwinter in zone 8. Dies out in summer heat above roughly 30C rather than in the cold.
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. Pansies are timed from 12 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Panzhihua.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Panzhihua is zone 9b, 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 325 days, against 90 to 120 days to first flower for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Panzhihua
Other flowers to time
Growing pansies in Panzhihua
When should I plant pansies in Panzhihua?
Aim for 31 Dec - 4 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 28 Jan - 4 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will pansies be ready to harvest in Panzhihua?
Expect to start picking around 31 Mar - 30 Apr, based on 90 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will pansies tolerate?
Hardy to about -15C and flowers whenever the temperature rises above about 4C, which is why it blooms in midwinter in zone 8. Dies out in summer heat above roughly 30C rather than in the cold.