One of the first steps you take when you are figuring out 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.

One way of figuring out when it's a good idea to plant dahlias is to examine the USDA zone info for Ferndale.

Planting Calendar for Dahlias

Frost tolerance for dahlias:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's not a good idea to plant dahlias until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant dahlias in Ferndale 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 dahlias and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dahlias may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your dahlias indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Ferndale. You should expect an average low temperature of -10°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Ferndale may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Ferndale you get a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your dahlias if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Ferndale

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 Ferndale

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