One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant purple coneflower is to consult the USDA zone info for Fairbanks.

Planting Calendar for Purple Coneflower

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

You can plant purple coneflower slightly earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Fairbanks is May. However, you really should wait until June if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant purple coneflower and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your purple coneflower may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Fairbanks. It might get as low as -50°F during the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Fairbanks may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Fairbanks you get a frost after May 15 be ready to cover your purple coneflower if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Fairbanks

Here is the info for USDA Zone 2a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	August 15
Lowest Expected Low	-50°F
Highest Expected Low	-45°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -50°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -45°F.

Plants to Grow in Fairbanks

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