One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You can figure out when you can plant purple coneflower in Zone 4a by reviewing the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Purple Coneflower

Frost tolerance for purple coneflower:	Tolerant of a very small amount of frost.
When to plant:	Up to 3 weeks before last frost.

Purple Coneflower do ok in moderate cold which means that you can get them planted just a bit earlier than other plants that might not handle the cold.

The earliest that you can plant purple coneflower in Zone 4a 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 purple coneflower and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your purple coneflower may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your purple coneflower indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Zone 4a the average date of last frost happens on May 15. It might get as low as -30°F during the coldest months of winter.

Remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Zone 4a and it changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Zone 4a it frosts late in the year after May 15 be ready to cover your purple coneflower in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Zone 4a

Here is the info for USDA Zone 4a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	May 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	September 15
Lowest Expected Low	-30°F
Highest Expected Low	-25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -30°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -25°F.

Plants to Grow in Zone 4a

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Zone 4a.