One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine 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.

One way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant dahlia is to check out the USDA zone info for Chesterton.

Planting Calendar for Dahlia

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

You really shouldn't plant dahlia until after all chance of frost has passed because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in Chesterton 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 dahlia and expect a good harvest is probably August. If you wait any later than that and your dahlia may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your dahlia indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost when the weather gets warmer is on April 15 in Chesterton. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Chesterton is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Chesterton last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to cover your dahlia if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Chesterton

Here is the info for USDA Zone 6a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-10°F
Highest Expected Low	-5°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -10°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -5°F.

Plants to Grow in Chesterton

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