Heather26/2/04 5:37
n.co.uk

Hi all

In an effort to get something growing early in my otherwise rather plantless
(new) garden I ordered some perennials ten days ago expecting delivery in
March. Typically they arrived today - there's about two inches of snow down
as I write and the ground is most definitely not suitable for planting!

Some of the plants have well-formed rootballs and are in hinged plastic
trays that split in two to get the plants out. Some, which are really just
a clump of roots with a few shoots are in a clear plastic bag with damp soil
(hemerocallis) and some are wrapped in plastic with a tiny bit of soil
(hostas).

I've put them all outside - the instructions that came with them said don't
put them in a dry or heated area as they will dry out too much. I've
unwrapped the plastic wrapped ones and put them in an unheated shed to keep
the snow off the roots.

The snow and freezing temps are forecast to continue into the weekend and
obviously I can't plant while the soil is frozen anyway. Any suggestions
would be welcome - should I plant the hemerocallis and hostas in a couple of
big pots just to get their roots into something??


Potting them up will be good but don't be tempted to go for very big pots.
For the little plugs, see if you can find trays of 24 2" 'square 'pots' at
your local Nursery and pop them into those for a few weeks. Then pot them on
again into 10 cm pots, if needs be. You can't put things that small into
the garden for a while anyway. The trouble with a few sunny days in winter
is that everyone thinks spring is really here and doesn't realise they have
to look after those baby plants until danger of frost is past in their
particular area.
Your Hostas and Hemerocallis could be potted up in 1 litre pots but above
all keep all these things *just* moist, not really wet.
When people buy very small bedding plants from us we do advise them to wait
until all danger of frost is past before they plant out and if they've
nowhere to keep them, we advise them to wait to buy them, too.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)