One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 Hillsdale you can determine when it's a good idea to plant purple coneflower by referring to 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.

Since purple coneflower do ok in moderate cold you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Hillsdale 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purple coneflower may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Hillsdale. It might get as low as 0°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that USDA zone info for Hillsdale is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Hillsdale last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your purple coneflower if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Hillsdale

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	0°F
Highest Expected Low	5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 0°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 5°F.

Plants to Grow in Hillsdale

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