Help! Gardening Experts - when to plant out plug plants?

[UnrequitedSkink]

I recently acquired 6 each of Delphinium Pacific Giant, Lavender Hidcote, Geum Mrs Bradshaw, Digitalis Excelsior, Echinacea Primadonna and Penstemon Tubular Bells. From Thompson and Morgan - they were FREE!! Well, apart from a fiver for postage. Anyway I've potted them on and with the exception of 3 of the delphs, they're all doing quite well - especially the foxgloves which are growing out of their little pots already (only potted on 4 weeks ago).

I've been babying them up til now, (particularly the echinacea and delphiniums as my garden is overrun with snails and slugs and they adore the young leaves so they get brought in at nighttime) but my question is, what to do with them over the winter? I don't have a greenhouse, could I plant the digitalis and lavender out now and would they survive? Would I be better off planting some of them into larger pots and overwintering them in the shed? I can't keep them in the house, they're taking over!!! The DC can only eat at one end of the kitchen table!

I bought the same plants. The snails ate the echinacea and delphiniums almost immediately and the penstemon as soon as I planted them out! I'm going to plant out the foxgloves and geums in a few weeks, when I clear up and cut down some of the gone-over stuff. I'll keep the lavender in pots until I'm ready to plant the window box I have in mind for them.

I think you need to get your plants outdoors while the weather's still warm. They should get through the winter in their pots - especially if you put them near the house - but on cold nights you could wrap them in fleece. The shed might be suitable, as long as it's light enough - if it's too dark they'll become very spindly.

If you keep them in pots make sure they don't dry out over the winter though, it is easy to obverlook how much more easily pots dry out in wind. If you have to keep in pots, then I would use John Innes No 2 or 3 rather than normal compost as it dries out less easily and 2 ltr pots rather then very small pots. A sprinkling of slug pellets every few weeks will keep slugs and snail at bay.

I've been advised elsewhere that overwintering them in pots isn't a great idea because it's so easy to let them die, and that I should put them under cloches (made from plastic bottles), in position in November! I wouldn't have thought to put them out so late, but the lovely man who has advised me is a real old timer who knows what he's talking about, so who am I to argue!? Fingers crossed the cloches keep the slimy things off...and at least I'll be able to find them easily in the spring. I have a nasty habit of forgetting what is planted where...

Best thing is to put them out now. It gives the roots a chance to settle, establish and grow a little bit before winter and then next spring you should have a good show. They will disappear almost completely over the winter as the leaves rot down, so it would be worth putting a cane or stick where you've planted them, so that you don't pull them up as weeds next year when they first start to emerge (which I've done a few times!)

I think that's good advice - you sounded committed to keeping them in their pots, but I'm sure that some of the little plants of mine that died in their pots last winter would have fared better in the ground. Tiny pots are much more vulnerable to freezing and the roots, being above ground level, can be damaged.

You need to buy lots of mineral water now, to make the bottle cloches (and clear bottles are better than green)!

One further thought ... I'm not sure if you are aware that delphiniums and foxgloves are poisonous. These are the ones I know of - I'm not sure about the others, it's probably worth looking them up (crocus.co.uk) if you have pre-schoolers in your garden.

I knew that about foxgloves, but not about delphiniums! Eek! I've got them in my kitchen! The foxgloves are going to be in a shady out of the way spot but I may have to rethink the delphs (they only break my heart anyway, I've never managed to keep them snail free). Thanks for that info...

www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Sustainable-gardening/pdfs/c_and_e_harmful RHS guide to toxic plants]].

You need to make a judgement based on how toxic the plant is, how old your children are and how likely they are to touch or nibble plants or berries. There are some plants I will use (lily of the valley) and some I won't (aconitum).

Oops. RHS guide to toxic plants.