Safe or not? to put outside

Hello everyone! I would appreciate your input. I have recently received plants in the mail (comfrey, tansy, rubdeckias) along with several others. Don't know if they were in a greenhouse or not but have been putting them outside during the day, bringing them in at night. Don't you think I could leave them outside if I protected them now? This weather has been so difficult to deal with and never knowing when it will be hot or cold. These plants are getting large and need to be put in the ground or in a larger pot. Other perennials in the yard are up and growing so I can't help but think I could put them outside. What do you think? Please share your thoughts. Thanks.
Shirley

I say YES its ok to leave them out. Just be sure to keep watered with this wind and no rain. Maybe shelter from too much sun and wind. I think they may well have been outside or under a hoop house. My comfrey in ground is coming up well and happy.

I agree with Sally, especially if you've had them in the sun so they don't burn. Ric

Thank you both so much! I would hate to lose plants just because I was in such a hurry. My daughter said she thought Mother Nature was "off her meds".

ROFL!!! Thats funny!

My general rule of thumb is 7 - 10 days of hardening off or getting used to new condidtions. Surprising how hard wind/sun can be on new plant arrivals, almost more so than temps! Looks like next week will see nite temps settle down enough for me to consider putting my overwintered 'tropicals' outdoors for the season so I can water them and bring them back to active growth.

Hey, think about coming to some of the plant swaps!

Off her meds, hmmmm, I thought maybe she was trying some of her own botanicals, Claviceps purpurea, for one or better known as purple haze. LOL Ric

Comfrey!! THAT'S what's flowering in the front of my bed...for the life of me I couldn't remember which plant that was....LOL

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/317/
Comfrey link plantfiles

The tomato made shade tree did't, the remainder are catnip, a butterfly bush,and a baby clematis.

sallyg and Chantell, since you both grow the comfrey, how large are your plants? I went to the link and read but was just wondering how much space I need to give it. I have this awful habit of putting in stuff that quickly outgrows the area and don't want to make that mistake with the tansy and comfrey.

comfrey gets pretty large and it spreads quite a bit. About 2ft high I think.

wyldeflwr- My two plants have leaves up that are about a foot long at this point. So already they are filling a square foot each. I somehow made them decline last year- maybe because we buried the dog poo bucket too close last spring. Once you have it, they say its indestructible.
Flowers reminds me of Borage; maybe that would be the look without the aggressiveness.

sallyg, having bred Shelties & Labs for 25 years I can only surmise that the physical inground bucket cut off the roots because that dog poo is a wonderful lawn fertilizer. My youngest brother managed a lawn care company and was going to reseed our backyard of several slopes for us. His company wanted too much money, so we borrowed a tiller and just tilled up the backyard (home of all the dogs). I came behind the tiller and handseeded the grass. That stuff came in so thick it was unbelievable.

Sounds good Pam. I guess we should make more effort to bury in place rather than pick up and move the poo outa sight outa mind. (outa smell range)
I'm not fretting the recent frost warnings. I just don't beleive them, not for me anyway, closer to the bay. And what I do have out is not in the open middle of the yard, but under greenery. I HAVE NOT put out known really cold sensitive things like coleus or plumeria.

Sallyg, It works for my yard cause I have a lot of space, no children running around, and this virginia clay needs all the help it can get!
I live 5 miles from the Atlantic and about 6-10 miles from the Bay, we get a lot of fog here, so much less frost that we should have. The kids get delayed openings all the time for fog. I have my Bluestone package out in the front, morning sun. I have just kept it watered and covered it the first few days with a plastic table (what can I say - it was handy) but it has been uncovered the last few days, It is full of butterfly bushes, hydrangea "Pinky Winky" my favorite, and some Nepete Chaudron that I read about last week here and hurried to order before my order was shipped. Everything looks good, my tomatoes will remain in the patio greenhouse for a few more weeks but it looks like I will be opening it up on Saturday if the weatherman is to be believed.

I grew seeds inside, tomato and cucumber. I was taking them outside during the sunny days to make them grow less skinny and get them ready for the real world. Then, had a hard frost freeze one night, and of course that was the one night that they did not come inside. Cucumbers bit the dust. Most of the tomatoes are ok, though they look like they've been through a war. You know, the tomatoes that survived the freeze should be great plants. I am thinking that taking a bit of a hard attitude along the line of "only the strong survive," is the right choice. I also planted the rest of the cucumber seeds right in the garden, and they are coming up just fine. So, go for it!

PAM- lol the plastic table, I do stuff like that all the time.

Grace- hm, bad news and good news. Meanwhile my inside sown cukes and squash have not come up yet which surprises me. I noted on one label planted 4-2 which means two weeks ago?? I expected those buggers in a few days What the heck?

I have some inside grown ornamental peppers, still quite small with several leaves, I divided them and potted yesterday and left them out but in a sheltered spot between other large pots and under a now pretty shady norway maple.

Sallyg: I haven't started seeds for many, many years. What a fun and $$$ adventure it is now! I had a coupon for a high-end nursery, and with my husband's great support, I bit the bullet. I bought a modest plastic tray (held 12 pots), a neat cover for it, and also an $$$ fancy heating pad for underneath. I also got organic seed starting mix, and manure-based pots. Cool! Put all of this in front of an inadequately-lit window, and three days later (no joke), all were up! Have to highly recommend all that I bought.
If I were you, I would start another tray, and bite that same bullet for a fancy heat pad. Go for it! Seems that starting seeds these days (it always was) is more of an elite thing that people do in order to have certain plants, so of course the wallet opens...and you now what? If things don't grow, just get ye to the nearest nursery and choose something nice. Life is short!

Ah but still, expensive seeds are cheaper than expensive plants of the same type!

Ah Grayce, a bottom heating pad comes right after a greenhouse I can live in! I just know it would enable me to overwinter some select coleus (where my screen name comes from) varieties ....sigh. How large is yours and how much did it cost? And, how lucky for you with a high end gift card! Me thinks plant and garden stuff is better than memnolo shoes!

Sally, I hear there are special dog poop composters
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/dog-droppings-composter.html

Could be another 'article ' for you to write......It would be a real scoop!

This message was edited Apr 15, 2012 7:58 AM

Coleup: My most humble (yet effective) heating pad is small - about 10" x 14" all told, and was $40.00. I know, YIKES! But in Virginia, where our green ambitions often makes us antsy to get started on Spring, this seemed like a logical choice. And it was. I remember growing spindly, fungus-affected seedlings in my youth, so now that I am back into it, I have learned! I will not go the cost of artificial lights (just yet), but the heating pad is JUST THE THING.

Sallyg: Totally agree, IF your seedlings thrive. Kind of a struggle in my area without a ton of artificial help.

As God is my witness my porch will be emptied of all of its overwintered tropicals and said tropicals will be placed outdoor for the season and brought back to life by copious amounts of applied water by the end of this day.

See you all later.

Inexpensive shop lights with every-day cool fluorescent bulbs work just fine for seedlings... And there are some creative ways to provide bottom heat, too... I do have a heat mat, and I love it, but the most helpful time for bottom heat is usually while seeds are germinating (before they need light), so you have lots of flexibility in terms of just finding them a warm place to sprout, even more so if you sprout them on a damp paper towel inside a baggie...

If you click my profile or search the article, you'll find a "seed starting 101" series that includes an article on lighting and one on heat. Those fancy all-in-one setups are wonderful, but there are other ways too, especially when you're trying to start more than one or two flats of seeds.

I start "unusual" seeds like heirloom tomatoes, various hot peppers, and a variety of basils... but I also use my light shelves for "common" seeds like white alyssum... if I have to buy it by the 6-pack, I make do with just a few plants, so having 1 or 2 flats of it so I can tuck it anywhere & everywhere makes me feel very rich! LOL

a scoop---ha ha ha coleup, er Scarlett...

Thought you'd like that Sally!

Yep, porch cleared by noon and now am dividing elephant ears before I water them. EGads I have a lot At $6.95 a starter pot I could be rich!

Like Scarlett, however, I may be backlit by the setting sun today before I make much of a dent in potting up divisions for self and swap. Mostly I have Colocasia fontenesii...They work great for anyone who has a pond as they will grow in water! I believe the tubers are edible as in 'taro'....Kinda sounds like Tara...

Okay, back out I go. Maybe I need to have some lunch if dried tubers appeal to me...