Garden centre plants - frost hardy?

[Blogdog]

I went a bit mad in the garden centre yesterday and came home with a lot of plants, but I see now that there is a sharp frost / wind chill forecast for the next few days. Are they safe to plant today or should I put them in the shed until the frost passes?

I have a clematis, lonicera, hydrangea, scabiosa, cornflower and a couple of container / basket plants.

Clematis, lonicera,hydrangea should be OK. Scabiosa usually dies down for the winter so I'd give it protection - if it's anything larger than a just-emerging rosette, then it's been having protection. Cornflower - do you mean the perennial one? - treat as Scabiosa. The basket/container plants probably also need protection - depends what they are.

However, they will all need daylight for healthy growth, so if the shed is the only cool place you have, then try putting them in the shed overnight and bringing them out in the day.

Don't bring them into the house and put them on to a windowsill for light, as they'll then make a lot of growth with the warmth and heat, and you'll have to wait even longer before you can plant them out.

That looks like a sheltered spot. I’d make a cover structure out of things like cardboard, a garden chair, old netting or newspaper, just to keep the frost off the plants. That way they’ll be in daylight, but frost protected.

With the smaller plants you have there I would think of potting them into slightly bigger pots so they have room to grow until you are ready to put them into their final pots,/ baskets. It might be a few more weeks before you can plant them out depending on where you are.

What kind of lonicera have you got? Please tell me it's not a japonica? They should be banned - it's worse than ivy. I have lost the battle with the one my neighbour planted and now the root balls are under our fence panels. It has run right along one of our borders and killed one plant and nearly finished another off.

Interesting, I’ve never found honeysuckle japonica to be that much trouble.
It’s easily pruned...

My neighbours (both sides!! 😭) brambles on the other hand are an absolute nightmare!

There’s another very annoying plant that has self seeded itself in my NDN hedge and therefore encroaches into my garden that is almost as bad.
I have no idea what it is but it’s a real pain in the arse.
Light green, soft furry leaves, no thorns and easily pulled but it grows like you wouldn’t believe and roots everywhere it’s stem touches

It’s a honeysuckle periclymenum @CurlyhairedAssassin, which I think also has form for being a bit of a thug but I do love the scent and thought I’d give it a try. It’ll be scrambling over my shed, nowhere near my neighbours so at least only I will have to deal with it if it gets out of control! It’s going in a shady spot so may not thrive but we shall see.

Thanks everyone for all the advice - I’ve planted the climbers and the hydrangea and am going to overnight the others in the shed until next weekend, taking them out during the day (one of the benefits of working from home!).