One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out 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.

In Harwood Heights you can figure out when it's the best time to plant echinacea 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.

Since echinacea are barely cold tolerant you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Harwood Heights 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Harwood Heights. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Harwood Heights is an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Harwood Heights last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your echinacea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Harwood Heights

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 Harwood Heights

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Harwood Heights.