One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's possible to plant purple coneflower is to examine the USDA zone info for Jacksonville.

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 means that you can plant them slightly earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Jacksonville 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. If you wait any later than that and your purple coneflower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Jacksonville. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Jacksonville is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Jacksonville last frost occurs after March 15 be ready to cover your purple coneflower if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Jacksonville

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 Jacksonville

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