The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us estimate your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of estimating when it's a good idea to plant echinacea is to examine the USDA zone info for Bedford.

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 do ok in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other frost tender plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Bedford 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 really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Bedford the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 0°F.

Remember that USDA zone info for Bedford may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Bedford you get a frost after April 15 so always be ready to protect your echinacea if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Bedford

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 Bedford

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