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.

A way of making a decision about when it's the best time to plant dahlia is to refer to the USDA zone info for Mount Holly.

Planting Calendar for Dahlia

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

Since dahlia do not do well in cold weather it is necessary to wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in Mount Holly 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 the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Mount Holly. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Mount Holly is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Mount Holly you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your dahlia in the event of a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Mount Holly

Here is the info for USDA Zone 7b.

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

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

Plants to Grow in Mount Holly

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Mount Holly.