One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the 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 Aurora can be figured out 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 tend to make it in a tiny bit of cold which means that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Aurora 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. If you wait any later than that and your echinacea may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your echinacea indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Aurora. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Aurora may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Aurora you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your echinacea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Aurora

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 Aurora

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