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.

A common way of getting a good idea when it's a good idea to plant echinacea is to check out the USDA zone info for Montpelier.

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 are barely cold tolerant which tells us that you can plant them slightly earlier than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Montpelier is April. However, you really should wait until May 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. Starting your echinacea indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on May 15 in Montpelier. You can expect an average low temperature of -25°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Montpelier is an average and the actual date of last frost is different every year. Since half of the time in Montpelier it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to cover your echinacea in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Montpelier

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-25°F
Highest Expected Low	-20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -25°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -20°F.

Plants to Grow in Montpelier

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