Stock · Norfolk, Virginia, United States
When to sow stocks in Norfolk
Main outdoor window
24 Feb - 17 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
10 March
In Norfolk, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
15 May - 14 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 Norfolk
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
13 Jan - 3 Feb
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
24 Feb - 17 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
In flower
15 May - 14 Jun
Stocks through the year
Against the frost risk in Norfolk
Why these dates
Start indoors eight weeks before the last frost and plant out two weeks before it. Stocks need cool nights, below about 15C, for several weeks to initiate flower spikes, so early planting is not optional - a late-planted stock grows into a leafy plant that never blooms.
Hardy to about -8C. In zone 8 and warmer the sensible approach is autumn planting for late-winter flowers, and in hot climates it is a winter crop only.
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. Stocks are timed from 8 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 Norfolk.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Norfolk is zone 8b, 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 272 days, against 80 to 110 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 Norfolk
Other flowers to time
Growing stocks in Norfolk
When should I plant stocks in Norfolk?
Aim for 24 Feb - 17 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 14 Mar - 4 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will stocks be ready to harvest in Norfolk?
Expect to start picking around 15 May - 14 Jun, based on 80 to 110 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will stocks tolerate?
Hardy to about -8C. In zone 8 and warmer the sensible approach is autumn planting for late-winter flowers, and in hot climates it is a winter crop only.