One of the first steps you take when you are estimating 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.

By referring to the USDA zone info for Aliso Viejo you should be able to figure out when it's a good idea to plant echinacea.

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 a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Aliso Viejo is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

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

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on January 31 in Aliso Viejo. It might get as low as 30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Aliso Viejo is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Aliso Viejo you get surprised by a frost after January 31 be ready to cover your echinacea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Aliso Viejo

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	30°F
Highest Expected Low	35°F

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

Plants to Grow in Aliso Viejo

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Aliso Viejo.