One of the best tools that you have as gardeners to help us estimate 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.

One way of figuring out when you can plant dahlia is to look at the USDA zone info for South Hill.

Planting Calendar for Dahlia

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

Dahlia require warm weather which means that it is important to wait until it warms up after the last frost has passed before you can plant them.

The earliest that you can plant dahlia in South Hill 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. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your dahlia indoors.

Last Frost Date

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

Just be sure to remember that USDA zone info for South Hill is just an average and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Half of the time in South Hill you get surprised by a frost after April 15 so make sure that you are ready to protect your dahlia if you have a surprise late frost.

USDA Zone Info for South Hill

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 South Hill

You may be interested in your other planting guides for South Hill.