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

One way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant purple coneflower is to examine the USDA zone info for Gilmer.

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 do ok in moderate cold you can plant them a bit earlier in the year than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Gilmer 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. If you wait any later than that and your purple coneflower may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your purple coneflower indoors is a great way to get them started a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on March 15 in Gilmer. You can expect an average low temperature of 10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Gilmer is an average and the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Gilmer you get surprised by a 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 Gilmer

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	10°F
Highest Expected Low	15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 15°F.

Plants to Grow in Gilmer

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