One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's possible to plant echinacea is to check out the USDA zone info for North Liberty.

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 do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in North Liberty 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. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in North Liberty. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for North Liberty and it is different every year. Half of the time in North Liberty last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your echinacea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for North Liberty

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in North Liberty

You may be interested in your other planting guides for North Liberty.