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.

A common way of estimating when to plant echinacea is to look at the USDA zone info for Huntley.

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.

You can plant echinacea just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Huntley 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your echinacea may not have a chance to fully mature. 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 Huntley. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Huntley is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Huntley there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your echinacea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Huntley

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 Huntley

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