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

By checking out the USDA zone info for South River it's possible to determine when it's a good idea to plant echinacea.

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.

Since echinacea do ok in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in South River 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. Any later than that and your echinacea may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for South River and it will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in South River there is a last frost after April 15 be ready to protect your echinacea in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for South River

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 South River

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South River.