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

In New London you can figure out when it's the best time to plant echinacea 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.

Since echinacea are barely cold tolerant you can plant them slightly earlier in the year than more sensitive plants.

The earliest that you can plant echinacea in New London 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. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your echinacea indoors.

Last Frost Date

In New London the average date of last frost happens on April 15. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of -20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for New London is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in New London it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your echinacea if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for New London

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

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

Plants to Grow in New London

You may be interested in your other planting guides for New London.