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 common way of making a decision about when to plant dahlia is to refer to the USDA zone info for Gaffney.

Planting Calendar for Dahlia

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

You should not plant dahlia until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in Gaffney 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. If you wait any later than that and your dahlia may not have a chance to really do well. If you are starting your dahlia indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a couple of weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

In Gaffney the average date of last frost happens on April 15. You can expect an average low temperature of 5°F in the coldest months of winter.

Just be sure to remember that the actual date of last frost is an average because it is based on the USDA zone info for Gaffney and it changes from year to year. Half of the time in Gaffney you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are prepared to protect your dahlia in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Gaffney

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 Gaffney

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