Please tell me it's too early for Petunias...

Here we go again, it's mid May and I was unable to walk past Petunias at Morrisons (20 ready to plant- sized pure white ones for £3 )

Can I please plant them already? Please? Day temperatures are typical North East 13-ish, and nights are decent, around 5C. Is it still too cold?

My Dahlias poked their heads out last week and have done well without protection, then again, they are in a container on decking which should keep the soil reasonably warm. Are Petunias more tender than Dahlias?

Thanks!

I think it would be great if plants were labelled like food, "suitable for greenhouse only until June" , "best sown before", "suitable for people who can afford a ridiculously large garden- city people forget it" and so on.

 

"Please tell me it's too early for Petunias..."​

It's too early for petunias!!

Val

 

Thanks guys, I take your firm but friendly advise. Is tomorrow ok then?

Just tucked my lovely Petunias in for the night, tomorrow I'll pot them up into bigger pots and arrange some room in my blowaway greenhouse. (And probably pop to Morrisons again, they had some cute light blue ones as well.. ) Is petuniaphilia a word?

 

And the winner of Gardeners Corner word of the week is Selleri with....

 

I'm in the north-west and my petunias are outside hardening off. At least another week before I consider planting out and if the cold doesn't get them at the moment the slugs will!

 

This is a very good point. Its not just about the cold actually harming them, it might be warm enough for a plant to survive but not to 'wake up'. I've discovered the hard way a few times that a dormant plant is a sitting duck for the various pests. In the worst example, I once put about £100 worth of goosegogs on my land one february, against my dad's most strongest advice. I knew best of course, goosegogs are fully hardy. They were destroyed by rabbits in a week. Had I waited until late May, the rabbits would have still had a go, but they'd have been growing fast enough to stand a chance of replacing what they lost, and besides there'd be lots of other plants (and weeds) up for the pests to have a go at too.

 

For the next week or so, if you can, bring them at night and leave them out daytime.

 

Any plant can be pinched out and it will usually result in the plant being more bushy, the more you pinch out the more you will delay flowering though!!

Val

 

Pinching out petunia's won't hold them back to much FC, if it was fuschia's that would be a different kettle of fish.