When is it safe to plant out my Echium?

Hey everyone!

I'm struggling to work out when it's safe to plant out my Echium pininana. It's getting a bit pot bound.

Is it still too early? (Manchester weather)

 

I'd just wait for another week until this cold spell is over, it depends really on how soft it is, if its been somewhere warm all winter then a short sharp frost could damage it, but if its fairly hard grown then it would just shrug it off.

 

Ah ok. It's been in the greenhouse all winter but the heater has been set to 10 degrees the whole time.

 

Yes - you would need to acclimatise it by putting it outdoors - in a sheltered spot, during the day, and in at night. Once it's happy enough with that, you can even leave it overnight in a sheltered corner or under a table or something similar, before having it in the final spot, but it's still only April, so there can be plenty of unfavourable weather to come, so it's better to be careful.
Wind and rain cause as much damage [often a lot more] to overwintered plants, as frost does

 

It doesn't look like it's going to flower this year.
So if you are going to plant find a protected sunny position if you can.

 

we had an echium which died off in its what i presume must have been its 3rd year.

i managed to grow about 100 seedlings from the 'mother' which i sold or gave away.

ive kept 5 for myself.

i have 3 planted in the ground, one is about a foot high and the other two coming up to 2 foot.

i have two in pots which are both healthy and about a foot high.

will these two be ok to be kept in pots? they are big pots

 

I've some echium seedlings which I think next year will flower then die off. I'm going to keep them in big pots so they can go back in the cool greenhouse this coming winter...

 

I've had reasonable success outside here in Kent but you are taking a chance, mine were killed Dec 2022, but they would have sailed through this last winter were.
Coastal areas or milder Western areas stand a better chance than I do here.
They get much bigger if not kept in a pot and minus 5c seems to be the lowest yo can get away with, often the wet and frost at the same time is the killer.

I've got some seedlings of E. Wildpretti coming along but I don't find them hardy enough to go outside so they have to stay potted

 

im on the yorkshire coast so hopefully mine will flourish

 

As long as we dont get another 'beast from the east'.