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

A way of determining when it's the best time to plant purple coneflower is to refer to the USDA zone info for Cottage Grove.

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 are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather 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 purple coneflower in Cottage Grove 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 few weeks earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Cottage Grove. It might get as low as 15°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Cottage Grove is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Cottage Grove there is a last frost after March 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your purple coneflower in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Cottage Grove

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Cottage Grove

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Cottage Grove.