I have grown some young marigold and sunflower plants in cells and they
look ready to go out. I am told by those who know that these plants are
planted out in June. But last frost here in Wessex is about mid April. Does
anybody know why they should not go out now?

Davy

On Apr 25, 3:51*pm, Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:
On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:52:01 +0100, Sacha wrote:
On 2011-04-25 11:35:08 +0100, Davy said:

I have grown some young marigold and sunflower plants in cells and they
look ready to go out. I am told by those who know that these plants are
planted out in June. But last frost here in Wessex is about mid April. Does
anybody know why they should not go out now?

Davy

After first frosts is the usual thought for when to plant things out. *
But here in the balmy SW we're cautious up to the beginning of May and
beyond that, if the signs are omnibus.

Shows how the climate is changing! Here in south Wales, the rule used
to be wait until late June. Over the years it's moved forward and now
it's supposedly middle of May (no frosts later than April for several
years now though I keep some fleece handy just in case). Last year the
first frosts (of autumn, not spring) didn't come until *November,
though they came with a vengeance then. Only problem was the summer
was a washout and just about everything in the open had been battered
flat by the beginning of September!

What size are the cells? If the sunflowers are in small cells, they
ought to be potted on into 3 inch pots now as they'll otherwise become
rootbound. Marigolds can stay in cells as long as they are the
15-to-a-seed-tray size, otherwise they should also be potted on.

The American Dahlia growers reckon that you can start to plant out
once Lilac comes into flower.

On Apr 25, 3:51*pm, Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:
On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:52:01 +0100, Sacha wrote:
On 2011-04-25 11:35:08 +0100, Davy said:

I have grown some young marigold and sunflower plants in cells and they
look ready to go out. I am told by those who know that these plants are
planted out in June. But last frost here in Wessex is about mid April. Does
anybody know why they should not go out now?

Davy

After first frosts is the usual thought for when to plant things out. *
But here in the balmy SW we're cautious up to the beginning of May and
beyond that, if the signs are omnibus.

Shows how the climate is changing! Here in south Wales, the rule used
to be wait until late June. Over the years it's moved forward and now
it's supposedly middle of May (no frosts later than April for several
years now though I keep some fleece handy just in case). Last year the
first frosts (of autumn, not spring) didn't come until *November,
though they came with a vengeance then. Only problem was the summer
was a washout and just about everything in the open had been battered
flat by the beginning of September!

What size are the cells? If the sunflowers are in small cells, they
ought to be potted on into 3 inch pots now as they'll otherwise become
rootbound. Marigolds can stay in cells as long as they are the
15-to-a-seed-tray size, otherwise they should also be potted on.

You can pot the sunflowers into 3 or 4 inch pots to grow on, and if
you want to use them as cut flowers then after planting you can take
the top off so that they become multi stemed, smaller flowers but a
beter size for vases.
The Marrigolds can be allowed to get quite thick in the trays before
they have to be planted,
I'd be inclined to plant out some of them and keep the others 24 to a
tray, if you don't have cells to grow them don't worry, cells are
quite a recient thing and bedding plants were grown in trays for well
over 150 years with no problem, qust make sure that when you take them
out of the trays that they have a fair amount of root to each plant.

On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:31:46 -0700 (PDT), Dave Hill
wrote:

On Apr 25, 3:51*pm, Jake Nospam@invalid wrote:
On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:52:01 +0100, Sacha wrote:
On 2011-04-25 11:35:08 +0100, Davy said:

I have grown some young marigold and sunflower plants in cells and they
look ready to go out. I am told by those who know that these plants are
planted out in June. But last frost here in Wessex is about mid April. Does
anybody know why they should not go out now?

Davy

After first frosts is the usual thought for when to plant things out. *
But here in the balmy SW we're cautious up to the beginning of May and
beyond that, if the signs are omnibus.

Shows how the climate is changing! Here in south Wales, the rule used
to be wait until late June. Over the years it's moved forward and now
it's supposedly middle of May (no frosts later than April for several
years now though I keep some fleece handy just in case). Last year the
first frosts (of autumn, not spring) didn't come until *November,
though they came with a vengeance then. Only problem was the summer
was a washout and just about everything in the open had been battered
flat by the beginning of September!

What size are the cells? If the sunflowers are in small cells, they
ought to be potted on into 3 inch pots now as they'll otherwise become
rootbound. Marigolds can stay in cells as long as they are the
15-to-a-seed-tray size, otherwise they should also be potted on.

The American Dahlia growers reckon that you can start to plant out
once Lilac comes into flower.
Which for me is about 2 weeks ago. I'm thinking of hardening off this
week and starting to plant out at the end of next week.

Our lilac is in full flower, but I'm still nervous of planting out this soon. Probably I'll risk second half of May.

Davy wrote in :

I have grown some young marigold and sunflower plants in cells and
they look ready to go out. I am told by those who know that these
plants are planted out in June. But last frost here in Wessex is about
mid April. Does anybody know why they should not go out now?

Davy


Could it be that the plants can go out quite soon but they make better
progress if kept in the warmth for a couple more weeks?
DAvy

Interesting post! Perhaps, I can start planting dahlia tubers.