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

The USDA zone info for Washington can be reviewed to determine when it's possible to plant purple coneflower.

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 a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Washington 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 really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Washington. It might get as low as 10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for Washington is just an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Washington you get a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your purple coneflower if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Washington

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 Washington

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