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.

The USDA zone info for Santa Maria should be reviewed to figure out when you can plant dahlia.

Planting Calendar for Dahlia

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant dahlia until after the last frost because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in Santa Maria 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. If you wait any later than that and your dahlia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your dahlia indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on February 15 in Santa Maria. In the coldest months of winter you should expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Santa Maria is not always accurate the actual date of last frost is different every year. Half of the time in Santa Maria there is a last frost after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your dahlia if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Santa Maria

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 Santa Maria

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Santa Maria.