When you grow perennials from seed, do you wait until fall to plant out?

Discussion in 'General Gardening Discussion' started by CanadianLori, Jun 5, 2022.

  1. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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    Herbaceous perennials should be ok in the dark through winter at a couple of degrees above freezing, any higher and they might start to grow.

    I keep a fair amount of frost tender stuff in my garage mostly pretty dark all winter, its finding the right temperature to kind of keep things alive but dormant.

    I'm guessing that with your winter temperatures the greenhouse is still too cold but cellar maybe, or is that too warm?
     
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    • hailbopp

      hailbopp Gardener

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      Sorry @CanadianLori I should have said my greenhouse isn’t heated either and does go below freezing during the winter at times. The longer I garden the more I am convinced it is winter wet rather than cold which is the death knell to so many plants.Maybe what you could do is plant out 50%of each variety and keep the other 50% under cover so you effectively hedge your bets!
       
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      • CanadianLori

        CanadianLori Total Gardener

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        @pete I do have a sorta "fruit cellar" which is cold and dark and that is where I store my tubers so maybe that would work.

        @hailbopp last winter it went down to -7f -22c at night so I don't think our unheated greenhouses are very much alike unless yours goes down that far? But it is a good idea about experimenting. I just hate losing carefully grown seedlings.
         
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        • pete

          pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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          If you can store tubers ok in the cellar I cant see why lots of the smaller stuff cant be overwintered in a similar way, maybe just be careful not to let the pots dry out.
           
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