One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

A common way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant purple coneflower is to look at the USDA zone info for Meridian.

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 do ok in moderate cold which tells us that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Meridian 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. Any later than that and your purple coneflower may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your purple coneflower indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Meridian. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Meridian may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Meridian there is a last frost after March 15 be ready to protect your purple coneflower in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Meridian

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 Meridian

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