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 determining when it's the best time to plant dahlia is to look at the USDA zone info for Shelby.

Planting Calendar for Dahlia

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

Since dahlia are not cold tolerant you really should wait until after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in Shelby 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. Any later than that and your dahlia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your dahlia indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Shelby. You should expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Shelby may not be accurate from year to year the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Shelby last frost occurs after April 15 be ready to protect your dahlia in the event of a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Shelby

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 Shelby

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