Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to determine when it's possible to plant purple coneflower by referring to the USDA zone info for New Orleans.

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.

Since purple coneflower are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in New Orleans is February. However, you really should wait until March 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 September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purple coneflower may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your purple coneflower indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on February 15 in New Orleans. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for New Orleans is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in New Orleans last frost occurs after February 15 be ready to cover your purple coneflower if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for New Orleans

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 30°F.

Plants to Grow in New Orleans

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Orleans.