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.

It's a good idea to figure out when you can plant echinacea by reviewing the USDA zone info for Winchester.

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.

You can plant echinacea a bit earlier in the year because they do ok in moderate cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Winchester 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 few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Winchester. You can expect an average low temperature of -5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Remember that USDA zone info for Winchester is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Winchester last frost occurs after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your echinacea if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Winchester

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 Low	0°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 Winchester

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