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.

A way of making a decision about when to plant dahlias is to look at the USDA zone info for Waupaca.

Planting Calendar for Dahlias

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

It's not a good idea to plant dahlias until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer because they require warm weather.

The earliest that you can plant dahlias in Waupaca 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 dahlias and expect a good harvest is probably August. You probably don't want to wait any later than that or else your dahlias may not have a chance to fully mature. If you are starting your dahlias indoors then you might be able to get away with starting them a few weeks earlier.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost has passed is on April 15 in Waupaca. You can expect an average low temperature of -20°F in the coldest months of winter.

Since the USDA zone info for Waupaca is not always accurate the actual date of last frost can change quite a bit from year to year. Since half of the time in Waupaca you get a frost after April 15 be ready to protect your dahlias in the event of one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Waupaca

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	October 15
Lowest Expected Low	-20°F
Highest Expected Low	-15°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -15°F.

Plants to Grow in Waupaca

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