One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

The first opportunity to plant echinacea in Jacksonville should be determined by reviewing 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 Jacksonville 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. Any later than that and your echinacea may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Jacksonville. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Jacksonville is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Jacksonville last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to cover your echinacea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Jacksonville

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Jacksonville

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