Is it too soon to plant these annuals outside?

I just purchased snapdragons, petunias, alyssum, lobelia, and pansies. I would like to plant them in the ground around the house and in pots. Is it too soon to do this? I can move the pots inside a 3 season porch at night if necessary, but what about the ground plantings? Most of these flowers are already blooming with a lot of buds. Thank you for your help!

This message was edited Apr 17, 2008 8:47 AM

The pansies can go in the ground now. Mine have been blooming all winter. They will even live in the snow (what little we get).The others, I would think should go in pots for now. I am in SC and I will still wait a couple more weeks before I plant anything new in the ground. Hope that helps.
Smokey

You are in a colder zone so it might be a little early. The pansies can probably take it. You would probably be okay if they are in containers and by the house. Just plant them close together and watch the weather and if they say its going to freeze, get out some sheets and cover them for the night. I personally would stick with containers only for a few more weeks.

Do you know your frost date ( last expected frost) I am in zone 6 , ours is May 7th, but the weather here was 74 today, low of 50, tommorrow 80. I would not put out any annuals unless they are hardy like the pansies. I did plant all my annuals one year, years ago in April and a frost took 50% of them, they were all started from seed under lights by me and I felt so sick.

Here's a chart for frost dates in MN
http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/mn.html

In your area, I would wait till May to be on the safe side, all the shops have their annuals ready for the garden, but that is because they have tons ready and they want them sold so they can restock the shop and you will be back to buy more because they have died off with cold night temps, better being safer than sorry, the plants that are flowering now can have the flowers nipped off by your fingers, this will help the plants to send out even more shoots and this makes even bushier plants with more flowers when they do go outdoors, dead heading will also help you care for them easier as plants use up a lot of energy making flowers, its too early for them to be flowering in your area and the reason they are is because they have been grown inside away from cold temps, night frost does more harm to our annuals than bugs eating them so go with caution. Good luck. WeeNel.

I was at the nursersy today and going to buy some stuff and the lady took me aside and said come back next week and then buy them...(it's too early) she said snaps and pansies are ok, but everything else wait on..I'm not putting my snaps in till next week, I want to pinch them down and set them in at night and out in the day...the have been pampered and it's rough out in the real world..so I would hold off, cause your more north than me....

Live in zone 5 /6, I always see people getting excited to early and buying petunias, etc., in April. We just had freezing temps and snow last week. Crazy
I always want to tell people, "I wouldn't buy them if I was you."
Guess they figure they will sell double the plants, because you will go buy more when they freeze. I actually planted a few plants, geraniums and such yesterday, might have been a little early. I feel like a weather girl since I have to watch it every night to moniter plants in the greenhouse, think we will be ok.
Good to know the sheet thing though, easier than hauling them into the garage.

If you try to fudge on the last frost day, you may have problems. Last year we had a very hard frost a week before our last frost date - April 15. This year after weeks of 75-80 degree weather, we had a hard frost on April 14th and April 15th. I was out covering everything back up with blankets those two nights.

Karen