One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us figure out your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

One way of figuring out when it's the best time to plant echinacea is to examine the USDA zone info for Pittsfield.

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 can survive in some cold which means that you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Pittsfield 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 really do well. 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 Pittsfield. It might get as low as -15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Pittsfield is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Pittsfield you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your echinacea in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Pittsfield

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 Pittsfield

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