One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

A common way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant purple coneflower is to use the USDA zone info for Kinston.

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 slightly earlier in the year because they are barely cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Kinston 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 fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Kinston 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.

Since the USDA zone info for Kinston is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Kinston last frost occurs after March 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your purple coneflower if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Kinston

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 Kinston

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