Re: Cold Hardy Babies
- To: perennials@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Cold Hardy Babies
- From: s*@bway.net
- Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 18:40:52 -0500
> At Home Depot Plant Section(shame on me) last night, I noticed that
> they had flats of small (2-3 inch) young plants outside all night. I
> was surprised, given that is still going below freezing here, and our
> last danger of frost is May 15.
>
> They were Achillea, digitalis, jacobs ladder, aquilegia, hollyhocks,
> delphiniums. They where awfully tiny, but apparently are hardened off
> already? Are these on the list of "cast iron" plants in cold weather?
>
> It never occurred to me that I could plant these now, otherwise,
> I would have started my seeds A LOT earlier than I have (last
> week), because I was thinking I would transplant in 8 weeks or
> so.
The above plants are certainly all cold hardy perennials. Certainly, if
the plants are fully hardened off they will get a good early start in the
garden. The trick is to know that they are fully hardened off.
We love Home Depot (or the like) for the occasional _really_ good deal on
plants that are undervalued due to their ignorance....although that is a 2
way street. As with with everything, 'let the buyer beware' and 'an
informed consumer, is a good consumer'.
As to starting your plants indoors early, and then planting out
(early).....The hard part is hardening off the seedlings enough to survive
the dips in the temperatures. Also, for some plants, especially biennials,
it's not an advantage to get them too large the first year. We have found
a higher winter mortality rate with very large first year foxgloves.
Bill & Harvey
SKID Plants Zone 6 CT USA
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