Before planting it is a good idea to find your USDA Zone info to figure out your garden schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A common way of making a decision about when it's a good idea to plant dahlias is to look at the USDA zone info for Shasta Lake.

Planting Calendar for Dahlias

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

Dahlias require warm weather 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 dahlias in Shasta Lake 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 dahlias and expect a good harvest is probably September. Any later than that and your dahlias may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your dahlias indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on February 15 in Shasta Lake. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 25°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Shasta Lake is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Shasta Lake it frosts late in the year after February 15 be ready to cover your dahlias if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shasta Lake

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 Shasta Lake

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Shasta Lake.