One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 estimating when you can plant echinacea is to consult the USDA zone info for Palmetto.

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 can survive in mild cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Palmetto 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. Any later than that and your echinacea may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your echinacea indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Palmetto. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Palmetto 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 Palmetto you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your echinacea in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Palmetto

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Palmetto

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