When to Plant Bougainvillea in Dayton, OH

One of the first steps you take when you are determining 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.

The USDA zone info for Dayton should be looked at to determine when to plant bougainvillea.


Planting Calendar for Bougainvillea

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

It's probably a bad idea to plant bougainvillea until after the last frost because they are not cold tolerant.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant bougainvillea
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant bougainvillea
Probably not a good time to plant bougainvillea

The earliest that you can plant bougainvillea in Dayton 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 bougainvillea and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your bougainvillea may not have a chance to fully mature. Starting your bougainvillea indoors is a great way to get them started a little bit earlier.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is April 15 in Dayton. It might get as low as -10°F during the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Dayton 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 Dayton you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your bougainvillea if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Dayton

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 Dayton

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