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.

The USDA zone info for Marathon should be reffered to in order to determine when it's a good idea to plant purple coneflower.

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 are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Marathon is January. However, you really should wait until February 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 November. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purple coneflower may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your purple coneflower indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Marathon it never frosts. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 45°F.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Marathon is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since it never frosts in Marathon you do not have to be ready to cover your purple coneflower in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Marathon

Here is the info for USDA Zone 11b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	Never
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	Never
Lowest Expected Low	45°F
Highest Expected Low	50°F

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

Plants to Grow in Marathon

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