The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. 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 Hammond should be reviewed to estimate when it's possible 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.

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

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in Hammond 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 grow to maturity. You can get started a little bit earlier by starting your dahlia indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average all chance of frost has passed is on April 15 in Hammond. You should expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

It's important to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Hammond and it can change quite a bit from year to year. Half of the time in Hammond it frosts late in the year after April 15 so be sure to be ready to protect your dahlia if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Hammond

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

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

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Hammond

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