When to Plant Echinacea in Christiansburg, VA

One of the first steps you take when you are estimating your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can estimate when it's the best time to plant echinacea in Christiansburg by referring to the USDA zone info.


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 tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier than plants that are more sensitive to 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 Christiansburg 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 fully mature. If you are starting your echinacea indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Christiansburg the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You should expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Christiansburg is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Christiansburg there is a last frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to cover your echinacea in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Christiansburg

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 Christiansburg

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