Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant purple coneflower is to check out the USDA zone info for Dayton.

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.

Purple Coneflower are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can start planting them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Dayton 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. Starting your purple coneflower indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

Remember that USDA zone info for Dayton is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Dayton it frosts late in the year after May 15 so always be ready to protect your purple coneflower if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Dayton

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 Dayton

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