One of the first steps you take when you are making a decision about 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 figuring out when you can plant zinnia is to check out the USDA zone info for Dayton.

Planting Calendar for Zinnia

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

Zinnia are not cold tolerant which tells us that it is necessary to wait until it warms up after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

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

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 is an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Since half of the time in Dayton it frosts late in the year after April 15 be ready to protect your zinnia in the event of 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.