Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to estimate your garden schedule. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

In Long Branch you can determine when it's possible 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.

You can plant echinacea just a tiny bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Long Branch 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 grow to maturity. Starting your echinacea indoors is a great way to get them started a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Long Branch. You should expect an average low temperature of 0°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Long Branch is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Long Branch you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your echinacea in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Long Branch

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 Long Branch

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Long Branch.