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.

A common way of making a decision about when you can plant echinacea is to use the USDA zone info for Cheboygan.

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 do ok in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Cheboygan 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 grow to maturity. If you are starting your echinacea indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Cheboygan the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Cheboygan is just an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Cheboygan last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your echinacea if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cheboygan

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Cheboygan

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