The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Smiths Station you can figure out when to plant echinacea by looking at 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.

Echinacea are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Smiths Station is March. However, you really should wait until April 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 couple of weeks earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Smiths Station the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Smiths Station may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Smiths Station last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to protect your echinacea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Smiths Station

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Smiths Station

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Smiths Station.