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.

In Harrisburg you can figure out when it's possible to plant purple coneflower by using the USDA zone info.

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 plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Harrisburg 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

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Harrisburg. It might get as low as 5°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Harrisburg and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Harrisburg it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your purple coneflower if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Harrisburg

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 5°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Harrisburg

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