One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

The first opportunity to plant echinacea in Bethel can be determined by checking out the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Echinacea

Frost tolerance for echinacea:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Since echinacea are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Bethel is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant echinacea and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your echinacea may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on May 15 in Bethel. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -35°F.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is not always accurate because it is based on the USDA zone info for Bethel and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Bethel it frosts late in the year after May 15 so be sure to be ready to cover your echinacea in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Bethel

Here is the info for USDA Zone 3b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-35°F
Highest Expected Low	-30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -30°F.

Plants to Grow in Bethel

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Bethel.