Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Hackettstown you can determine when it's a good idea to plant echinacea by referring to the USDA zone info.

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 well in some cold which tells us that you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Hackettstown 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. If you wait any later than that and your echinacea may not have a chance to really do well. Starting your echinacea indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Hackettstown. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Hackettstown and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Hackettstown last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your echinacea in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hackettstown

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

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

Plants to Grow in Hackettstown

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