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.

The USDA zone info for Cerritos should be looked at to estimate when it's the best time to plant dahlia.

Planting Calendar for Dahlia

Frost tolerance for dahlia:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost has passed.

It's probably not a good idea to plant dahlia until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in Cerritos is February. However, you really should wait until March if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant dahlia and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your dahlia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your dahlia indoors.

Last Frost Date

In Cerritos the average date of last frost happens on January 31. It might get as low as 35°F during the coldest months of winter.

Keep in mind that the actual date of last frost is just an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Cerritos and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Cerritos there is a last frost after January 31 be ready to cover your dahlia in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Cerritos

Here is the info for USDA Zone 10b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	January 31
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	35°F
Highest Expected Low	40°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 35°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 40°F.

Plants to Grow in Cerritos

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