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

The first opportunity to plant echinacea in Pacific should be figured out by using 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.

Since echinacea are barely cold tolerant you can plant them just a tiny bit earlier in the year than plants that are more sensitive to the cold.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in Pacific 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. Starting your echinacea indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is March 15 in Pacific. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 15°F.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost may not be accurate from year to year because it is based on the USDA zone info for Pacific and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Pacific you get surprised by a frost after March 15 be ready to protect your echinacea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Pacific

Here is the info for USDA Zone 8b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	March 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	November 15
Lowest Expected Low	15°F
Highest Expected Low	20°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 20°F.

Plants to Grow in Pacific

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