When to Plant Echinacea in Providence, RI

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

The USDA zone info for Providence can be reffered to in order to figure out when it's possible 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.

Echinacea are one of those plants that can tolerate a tiny bit of cold weather which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant echinacea
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant echinacea
Probably not a good time to plant echinacea

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Providence 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your echinacea may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your echinacea indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Providence the average date of last frost happens on April 15. It might get as low as -5°F during the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Providence and it will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Providence last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your echinacea in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Providence

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-5°F
Highest Expected Low0°F

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

Plants to Grow in Providence

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