One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule is the USDA zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

You will be able to figure out when it's the best time to plant begonias by referring to the USDA zone info for Dover.

Planting Calendar for Begonias

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

You should not plant begonias until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

The earliest that you can plant begonias in Dover 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 begonias and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your begonias may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your begonias indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Dover. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dover is just an average the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in Dover there is a last frost after April 15 so just be sure to be ready to protect your begonias in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dover

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 Dover

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