One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The best time to plant echinacea in Cottage Grove can be figured out by using the USDA zone info.

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 tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Cottage Grove 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 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 few weeks earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in Cottage Grove. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of -25°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Cottage Grove and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Cottage Grove last frost occurs after May 15 be ready to cover your echinacea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cottage Grove

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 Cottage Grove

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Cottage Grove.