🌿 When to Plant Lemon Verbena
Intensely lemon-scented; tender perennial; bring indoors for winter in cold climates
📅 Planting Calendar by USDA Zone
Lemon Verbena is a warm-season crop — plant it after your last spring frost, once the soil has warmed, and start seeds indoors a few weeks ahead for a head start. Find the exact start-indoors, transplant, and direct-sow dates for your USDA zone in the table below.
Select your zone to highlight your dates. All dates are calculated from each zone's average frost dates — see how we calculate them.
| Zone | Last Frost | Start Indoors | Transplant | Direct Sow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 2A | May 30 | Apr 4 | Jun 13 | — |
| Zone 3B | May 15 | Mar 20 | May 29 | — |
| Zone 4A | May 8 | Mar 13 | May 22 | — |
| Zone 4B | May 1 | Mar 6 | May 15 | — |
| Zone 5A | Apr 25 | Feb 28 | May 9 | — |
| Zone 5B | Apr 18 | Feb 21 | May 2 | — |
| Zone 6A | Apr 21 | Feb 24 | May 5 | — |
| Zone 6B | Apr 10 | Feb 13 | Apr 24 | — |
| Zone 7A | Apr 5 | Feb 8 | Apr 19 | — |
| Zone 7B | Mar 28 | Jan 31 | Apr 11 | — |
| Zone 8A | Mar 20 | Jan 23 | Apr 3 | — |
| Zone 8B | Mar 12 | Jan 15 | Mar 26 | — |
| Zone 9A | Feb 28 | Jan 3 | Mar 14 | — |
| Zone 9B | Feb 15 | Dec 21 | Mar 1 | — |
| Zone 10A | Feb 1 | Dec 7 | Feb 15 | — |
| Zone 10B | Jan 15 | Nov 20 | Jan 29 | — |
| Zone 11A | Jan 1 | Nov 6 | Jan 15 | — |
Lemon verbena has the most intense, true lemon fragrance of any herb — a single crushed leaf fills a room. It’s tender but worth growing every year.
Top Growing Tips
- Tender perennial — bring indoors before first frost
- Drops leaves when stressed or moved indoors; keep evenly moist
- Prune hard in late winter to encourage vigorous new growth
- Leaves hold their fragrance when dried better than almost any herb
- Infuse into simple syrups, teas, and cocktails for bright lemon flavor
Companion Planting
Good companions: other tender herbs, containers near seating areas
Avoid planting near: Cold drafts and frost
Harvest Timeline
Harvest leaves anytime after plant is established; best before flowering
Growing lemon verbena in your region?
These dates come from your zone's frost windows. For the full month-by-month plan — succession sowing, variety picks, and timing tuned to your climate, not just your zone — our regional vegetable-gardening guides cover your area start to finish.
Find your regional growing guide