When To Start Planting?
Hey Brownstoners, I am excited to start planting some shade-lovin’ perennials in my front yard. I am from the Southwest, where you can basically plant anything anytime (as long as it likes heat), so I don’t know when to start planting in a place where there are seasons. Any advice on planting?
Hey Brownstoners,
I am excited to start planting some shade-lovin’
perennials in my front yard. I am from the Southwest, where you can basically plant anything anytime (as long as it likes heat), so I don’t know when to start planting in a place where there are seasons.
Any advice on planting?
Since you asked specifically about shade loving perennials — they are generally not sold or shipped to an area of the country until after the frost date for that region, unless earlier shipping is requested. They tend to be hardier in a spring cold snap than some of the tender plants people have mentioned here. Hostas, Brunneras do well even if its cool. If the weather report includes a frost warning you can always cover the plants for the night.
I second Martin Viette – it’s a beaufiul nursey on route 25A and while it’s a bit pricey – they have premium quality plants and flowers and as a previous poster mentioned – they have a lot of shade perennials.
I have had better luck at Martin Viette for containers not for plants.
My favorite place on Long Island for plants (including shade perennials) is Dee’s in Oceanside. Good values, huge huge selection of trees, shrubs, plants, herbs, on and on. And a massive bulb department come Fall.
I’d wait for the frost free date for new plantings. Bulbs and some perennials sprouting now are NOT an indicator of when to plant. You will see some things sprouting before 4/17 if you already have things in your garden, but they have well established root systems and can probably withstand a late frost and still generate enough growth to do well enough. New transplants always suffer a bit from transplant shock and don’t have the root system to help them weather a late frost. Much of plant stock at local nurseries comes from places in the south and is used to warmer weather. That stock would benefit from a period of acclimation to our cooler weather by the hardening off that an above poster mentions.
Starting planning what you want layout-wise instead, and get a good idea of the kind of garden you’d like. One place for specialty stuff is Martin Viette on Long Island- not cheap but a really good source for harder to find shade perennials. Good Luck!
Considering that I’ve had tulips, daffodils and day lillies sprouting all over the yard for well over a month, I’d say in this freaky deaky climate you could pretty much plant anything anytime.
We had frost in early may last year. Unusual, but it happens and killed the tomatoes of many who’d jumped the gun. You can start your peas as soon as you can dig though – next 2 weeks probably.
The brooklyn botanic garden is actually having a big event this weekend:
http://bbg.org/vis2/2008/mbb/
Check it out. There will be people around to answer questions. It’s a great resource.
The “frost free” date for this area is 4/17, meaning that frosts are unlikely to occur after this date and therefore you can start planting. It’s generally earlier than that in my experience.
In this climate it’s good to “harden off” your plants before putting them in the ground–take your plants in pots outside during the day, but then bring them in at night–slowly increasing the time spent outside over a number of days.
After a week or so, they should be good to plant. Planting on a warmish, cloudy day is best.
As long as they are true perennials, the optimum time to plant here is between March 15th through May 1st . ..any earlier and you run the risk of frozen ground and morning frost conditions . . .
Considering how volatile the weather has been it might even make sense to wait until April 1st this year . . . .