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.

The first chance to plant purple coneflower in Oakland can be determined by using 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 are barely cold tolerant 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 Oakland 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Oakland. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Oakland may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Oakland you get a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your purple coneflower if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Oakland

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	5°F
Highest Expected Low	10°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 10°F.

Plants to Grow in Oakland

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