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.

The USDA zone info for Forest should be reffered to in order to estimate when it's possible to plant purple coneflower.

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.

You can plant purple coneflower a bit earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Forest 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 purple coneflower and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purple coneflower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Forest the average date of last frost happens on March 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Forest and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Forest you get surprised by a frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your purple coneflower if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Forest

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°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 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Forest

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