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 Riverbank can be looked at to determine when it's a good idea to plant dahlia.

Planting Calendar for Dahlia

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

Dahlia are not cold tolerant which tells us that you must wait until it warms up after the last frost before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in Riverbank 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 dahlia and expect a good harvest is probably September. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dahlia may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your dahlia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Riverbank the average date of last frost happens on February 15. It might get as low as 25°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Riverbank may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Riverbank last frost occurs after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your dahlia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Riverbank

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	25°F
Highest Expected Low	30°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 30°F.

Plants to Grow in Riverbank

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