One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You should be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant echinacea by reviewing the USDA zone info for Starkville.

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 means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Starkville 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 echinacea and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your echinacea may not have a chance to grow to maturity. Starting your echinacea indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on March 15 in Starkville. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 10°F.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Starkville may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Starkville you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to cover your echinacea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Starkville

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 Starkville

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