One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The most important data that the zone info tells us is average last frost and the lowest expected temperature for your area.

By checking out the USDA zone info for Tarboro you should be able to determine when it's the best time to plant dahlia.

Planting Calendar for Dahlia

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

It's a bad idea to plant dahlia until after all chance of frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in Tarboro 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. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dahlia may not have a chance to grow to maturity. If you are starting your dahlia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

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

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

USDA Zone Info for Tarboro

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 Tarboro

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