ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230016
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Hoein' and Growin'
SOURCE: DIANE RELF
The average date of last killing frost varies across Virginia from March 30 to April 5 in the Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads area to April 10-20 in the Piedmont area to April 20-30 in the mountains. In this case, average means that in half of the years, the last killing frost occurs before those dates and, in the other half of the years, the last killing frost occurs after those dates.
Killing frost means that many of those bedding plants and tender vegetables that you set out too early will be killed.
But here in the Blacksburg area, I have seen plants succumbing to frost in late May.
Bedding plants to tempt you
Yet, tender bedding plants and vegetables, such as impatiens and tomatoes, are on the market six to eight weeks before the average last frost date in most areas. By the time it is warm enough to subject these plants to outside temperatures, the best choices are long gone. If you are really lucky, a second crop of plants will appear on the shelves so you can replace the ones that you lost to frost or that died from lack of light and humidity in your house while waiting to be transplanted.
As the gardening season approaches, you are caught in a terrible dilemma. If you buy the plants when they arrive in the stores, you have several choices, but none of them are too good.
* Find a good place to hold your plants until time to set them out. A bright, Southern window should work; otherwise, you will need artificial light about six inches from the tops of the plants. Of course, you could probably start plants from seed in the same location and the same amount of time that you will have to hold this very early crop.
* If the soil has warmed enough to avoid damage to the plants (50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit/10 to 15 degrees Celsius for most warm-season plants), you can plant them outside. Then watch the weather forecast every night so you can go out and cover the plants in case of frost. Most plants need protection from repeated temperatures below 50 F to avoid stunting. But realize that most of the plants will be lost to frost.
* Consider these early bedding plants as temporary harbingers of spring that are only to be bought, enjoyed for a few weeks in anticipation of warm weather, then composted. Replace them with a later crop that arrives at the proper time for planting.
Other choices
may not be any better
If you don't buy the plants when they first arrive, you may be faced with another set of equally frustrating choices:
* You could miss out on the types of flowers that you really want for your beds. Just keep looking around. Check with people that grow locally. They are in a better position to know what you need and when you need it.
* You could end up buying the leftovers that have been around the garden center for weeks in a somewhat protected location; that is, where it was not cold enough to kill them, but definitely cold enough to severely stunt their growth to the extent that they will never recover. Watch for signs of such damage, including a purple discoloration of the foliage, plants that have not grown since arriving at the store several weeks earlier (you look at them every time you are at the store for other things, just like me, don't you?), or untimely flowering. I have seen lettuce plants in 2-inch pots and squash in 3-inch pots in bloom. You will never get anything more from these plants. You would be much better off to forget them and plant seeds directly in the ground.
If the choices that you make leave you with dull feelings of guilt for your inability to start spring planting properly, please set aside those feelings. You can do nothing about the weather and very little about the untimely arrival of bedding plants at the store. Explore the return policy of the store - perhaps you can simply save your receipt and return any failures of the untimely early plants for some new ones at the appropriate time when they should be planted outdoors.
Diane Relf is a consumer horticulture specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension and is a member of the faculty of Virginia Tech.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB