One of the first steps you take when you are getting a good idea 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant echinacea is to refer to the USDA zone info for New Ulm.

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 well in some cold which means that you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in New Ulm 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your echinacea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your echinacea indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is May 15 in New Ulm. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for New Ulm is not always accurate and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in New Ulm it frosts late in the year after May 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your echinacea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for New Ulm

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 New Ulm

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New Ulm.