Snapdragon · Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
When to sow snapdragons in Cairo
Main outdoor window
not outdoors here
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
no spring frost
In Cairo, 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 Cairo
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.
Snapdragons through the year
Against the frost risk in Cairo
Why these dates
Start indoors ten weeks before the last frost - the seed is dust-fine and needs light, so press it onto the surface rather than covering it. Plant out two weeks before the last frost, because a light frost makes the plants branch rather than harming them. Pinch the tips at 15cm for more stems.
Hardy to about -8C once established and often survives a mild winter to flower again, especially in zone 8 and warmer where autumn planting gives spring flowers. Rust is a bigger risk than cold in damp climates.
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. Snapdragons are timed from 10 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Cairo.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Cairo is zone 10b, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
Also in Cairo
Other flowers to time
Growing snapdragons in Cairo
How much frost will snapdragons tolerate?
Hardy to about -8C once established and often survives a mild winter to flower again, especially in zone 8 and warmer where autumn planting gives spring flowers. Rust is a bigger risk than cold in damp climates.