I CANNOT BELIEVE how early this early-planting calamity has started — but it’s every year.
I was driving along thinking about all the gardening tasks that the season demands when, BLAM!
The offending scene was in my view.
Marigolds! In full bloom! What the heck is someone thinking of?
But it’s still not even the middle of April. Well obviously, no one is thinking. Then I saw geraniums, sitting outside and freezing their little buds off, wishing they were back in the nice warm greenhouse.
What makes matters worse, I saw these egregious plant atrocities at three different locations. But this is just the beginning, because many plant outlets will have certain material on the racks far too early for appropriate sales.
That this is an ideal planting time is not permission to plant things willy-nilly.
Do not plant sensitive, summer blooms anywhere outdoors now.
Instead, focus on planting roses, bare root trees, ground covers, containerized shrubs, bushes, many perennials, roots, tubers and bulbs along with sweet pea seed, grass seed and many cool crop vegetables.
Items like geraniums, impatience, marigolds, zinnias and begonias are absolute no-nos for four weeks yet!
Even normally hardy perennials that could be planted may be at risk.
Modern American marketing knows the faster you bring plants to market, the more you can exploit into profit share. And if your competitors beat you to the punch, you may lose numerous sales and never regain them.
Plant vendors also have realized that the average person just can’t wait (which we often must) after a long, dark, wet winter to plant.
Add that to a full rack of multiple flowers, all covered with bloom (for 99 cents each), and you have an irresistible thing to pass by. But you must resist!
In this vein, I saw several perennial trays of gorgeous prolific lithadora that are so noticeable with its bright sky-blue color. Lithadora would be a great perennial to plant now — if they’re grown cold and exposed to outside temperatures and conditions. If done this way, lithadora would be available in 3½- or 4-inch pots.
Instead, I saw these flowering delights in 6-inch square pots, all tall, lime green and spindly — the quintessential “forced plant.” This type of lithadora just won’t make it.
Many wholesale growers will “push” a spring-marketed plant in order to get flowers and money early. Forced plants are grown very warm — warm in the day, warm at night — with growth lights on and fertilizer being pumped into every watering. Even CO2 burners can add an extra few days in getting to market.
“Pushed” and “forced” plants are very easy to spot. They aren’t sturdy plants.
Instead, they are rather light green in color and have long or leggy growth that is floppy and weak.
I always pick up plants this time of year and give them a good vibrating shake, my hand grasped firmly around the pot. Forced, weak plants will literally shake apart as leaves and stems, along with flowers, will want to break off or drop away.
We need our plants conditioned to outside factors this time of year before they ever go outside.
Even your little seedlings on the window sill are being forced by the warm sun and your nighttime heat sources.
I have seen rhododendrons and azaleas in natural bloom at this time of year suffer greatly when planted outdoors. Why?
Because they were grown in greenhouses, and even though grown in very cool temperatures, they’ve never seen the natural sunlight of day or felt the whipping wind.
A slow, weeklong process of acclamation would be in order.
Just like you should never take your own indoor plants or seedlings outdoors and plant directly into the ground, you should be cautious about putting newly stocked plants directly into your soil.
First, find reputable plant vendors who have their material displayed outdoors or in a cool greenhouse or lath house that is exposed to the outdoor elements.
There are many great plant suppliers on the North Olympic Peninsula that strive to find and grow the best material suited for this area. I know many vendors who take great care in acclimating their plants.
Unfortunately, I know at least as many who don’t.
The onus is on you, the consumer, to hunt out reputable sources and asked pointed questions like: Where are these plants grown? When did they arrive? Have they been forced or pushed to market? Do you guarantee these plants will survive today’s conditions? Have you conditioned them?
And as for yourself and your own plants, move them outdoors gradually.
First, just a few hours of outdoor conditions and start with only an hour of early or late sunlight. Then leave them out longer and in more direct sunlight every day, so that after a week to 10 days, they are outside all night and day.
Then plant these conditioned items.
This time of year, hundreds of items are safe and desirable to plant now.
Do not rush future work for a few (and soon dead or dying) early sensitive flowers.
An ounce of cure is worth a pound of blooms. And please … stay well all.
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
