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

The USDA zone info for Howell should be used to determine when it's the best time to plant echinacea.

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 tend to make it in mild cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Howell 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 fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Howell. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -10°F.

Keep in mind that USDA zone info for Howell is an average and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Howell last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your echinacea if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Howell

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Howell

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