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

In Big Lake you can determine when it's possible to plant purple coneflower by using the USDA zone info.

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 a bit earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Big Lake is April. However, you really should wait until May 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 August. If you wait any later than that and your purple coneflower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on May 15 in Big Lake. You should expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Big Lake is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Big Lake last frost occurs after May 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your purple coneflower in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Big Lake

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°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 -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Big Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Big Lake.