The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. 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 Clinton can be read to figure out 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.

Purple Coneflower do ok in very little cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Clinton 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 purple coneflower and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your purple coneflower may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Since the USDA zone info for Clinton is just an average the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Clinton you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your purple coneflower in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Clinton

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 Clinton

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