The Unbearable Lateness of Planting
It’s so easy to plant too early. The warm sun shines for a couple of days in a row and it can take great restraint not to rush out and plant tomatoes, basil, Caladiums, and other tender garden delights. Big box stores and some garden centers encourage such rashness with tempting displays of plants with no word of warning that they have no business going out into the still chilled soil.
I’ve done it myself, and seen my tender plants droop and die, or at the very least sulk for an extended period.
In Chicago, May 15th is usually thought of as the earliest date for planting cold-sensitive annuals. It’s not a risk-free date, though, merely the average last date on which a frost might occur.
A better guideline, I’ve been told, is to wait until the nighttime temperature stays above 50 degrees F. This helps ensure that the soil is sufficiently warm. Otherwise your poor plants might feel like a person suddenly thrown into a frigid swimming pool.
The first part of May has been unusually cold this year, and so I didn’t plant tomatoes and basil until May 22nd. They now seem to be pretty happy.
I had a challenging situation, though, with my Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia). This is a very important plant in my sunny front garden. I buy seedlings from Anton’s, a local nursery. I’d start it indoors from seed but my work/travel schedule makes that impractical.
These days I can’t live without Mexican Sunflower in my garden, so I made a point of buying seedlings early, before Anton’s ran out. (I don’t know of any other retailers who sell this plant in our area.)
The seedlings were purchased on May 7th. Two were kept in our south-facing back porch for a week. The other two I planted outside. These immediately keeled over, and seemed to be transmitting silent shrieks. “Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad,” I told them, but I was distinctly uneasy.
The other two I planted the following weekend. But nighttime temps were still going well below 50 degrees, and these two also seemed to languish for a week. Frankly, I thought I might have a summer without Mexican Sunflower, a dismal prospect.
Finally, in the last week of May, the weather turned truly warm, even hot. When I got back home last weekend, all four of the Tithonias looked much healthier.
Long story short: even if it tests your patience, and even if it doesn’t kill your plants, don’t plant tender annuals too early. At a minimum, it will save you a lot of anguish.
gardeninacity 
The 15th May is our cut off day too, I’ve never known a frost after that day. I’m usually playing catch up so am never tempted to put things out too soon, it’s a question of whether things will get put out at all!
I know what you mean. We have been known to have frosts after May 15th, though.
Even in a winter when there was only one or two nights of frost May has been distinctly cool so peppers and egg plants that where planted out simply haven’t grown at all and the soil is warm so it is night time temperatures that are making my plants sulk.
Peppers and eggplants sure like it hot. Maybe you should try cabbage and rutabagas.
What’s rutabagas, I’ve never heard of it?
They’re like big turnips. I think in the UK maybe they are called “Swedes”.
Oh I see. Root crops don’t do well in my soil, it’s too stony. Also they’re a winter crop rather than summer. The plants will catch up when it warms up.
When I was growing up and beyond, no one planted annuals until Decoration Day (now called Memorial Day). No one wore white clothing or shoes until Decoration Day either.
I was just wondering where my white shoes got to.
My Tithonias are still in pots. I’m biding my time as I remember them being very unhappy in the soil this time last year and we lost a few. I’m mollycoddling them this year!
There is a time to mollycoddle. The Tithonias really like the heat.
This is sage advise. I have planted too early several times. The weather doesn’t always consult the calendar. It isn’t a good thing to do.
I really wish the weather would consult the calendar. That would be more fair, and predictable.
Exactly! Many forget it is the soil temperature which indicates when it’s time to plant and not the air temp! 🙂
Easy for the people to forget, but not for the plants.
Glad your Tithonias will make it. I noticed people planting things early here (April 15 is our avg last-frost date), but the wise “old-timers” down the road just set out their tomatoes about 10 days ago, once it had finally warmed up, and they took off.
That’s the thing about planting early. It almost never gets you earlier flowers. At best you wind up with the same bloom dates as the plants that were put in when the conditions were right. At worst, you get dead plants.
Frost free dates are always dodgy. I had an old gardener who said you should ignore them and only plant out seeds and tender young plants when the soil is warm enough to sit in with your bare bottom.
Depending on the circumstances, that bare bottom approach could get you into trouble with the law. Think I’ll stick with the nighttime temps.
That is the average date here too, but then we had just 2 degrees above zero later that week! I managed to keep my seedlings relatively warm (including Tithonia which are not sold anywhere as plants here) and they are only just perking up, but hopefully they will catch up now as it is much milder at night. I couldn’t imagine your garden without Tithonias either, as they were the inspiration for me to grow them too and I just adore them!
I think I should be named Ambassador of Tithonia.
I think a lot of people in our area got caught by surprise with the late cold temperatures, especially after such a warm start to May. Fortunately, my procrastination and lack of time paid off for me this year:) I started my Mexican sunflowers from seed, and they’re looking pretty good–can’t wait to see them bloom here!
I think you’ll enjoy them. The moral of your story is: Procrastination Pays!
The urge to plant early is all powerful. I must do it every year, and, though I now better, I am confident I will continue to do so. Alas.
Well, at least you’re not under any illusions.
We recently had freezing temps on June 6 here (2 years ago?). 50 degrees at night doesn’t seem to be a guarantee here, but at least the snow melts fast! 😉 I have succumbed and planted out my tomatoes.
May the Force be with you (or more precisely, your tomatoes).
This is a hard lesson to learn, especially when we have the occasional 90 degree days thrown in and it feels like summer in April.
Exactly, and the weather seems to have more and more of these wild temperature swings.
Sunflowers are deceptively fragile, even the ones started by spilled birdseed in my yard don’t always make it (that is, the ones I decide to let grow). I’ve gone on a planting binge just this weekend of native grasses and wildflowers and I’m glad they weren’t shipped until May 25!
Sounds like the nursery was thinking ahead.
Glad your Tithonias have perked up and are now enjoying the sun! Mine have just been planted out and are acclimatising to their new homes!
So many people are taken in by those displays of annuals in the garden centres and assume that , as they are for sale, then they can be planted straight out.
We try to wait until the last week of May just to be on the safe side, and we are in the East Midlands of the UK.
It was a relief to see the Tithonias recover.
Good words of advice! Most years, I wait until Memorial Day to plant tomatoes, peppers, and tropical annuals (even though our local garden centers say Mother’s Day is usually safe). This year, I started a few days earlier. It really doesn’t pay to get them in the ground early because they don’t grow much until the weather gets warm, anyway. It can actually stunt their growth to plant before nighttime temps are consistently above 50F. Plus, as you say, it saves the gardener from worry. 😉
Agreed on all counts.
I tried once and failed to grow Tithonia direct from seed outdoors.
Don’t know anywhere around here that sells the seedlings.
So I’ll have to try again from seed someday. And when I do, I’ll be sure to follow your advice on setting them out after last frost date (which here tends to be around April 18th, I believe).
Good luck with your garden this spring and summer!
I would recommend trying again from seed. I would think they would like your garden.
I planted too early this year, but it was because we had a very hot stretch…followed by a colder stretch. I think my bokchoy has bolted 😦 I guess I learned something! Great post:)
Thank you. At least some things can be replanted. Have you ever grown Chinese broccoli?
Good advice. And that goes for tender veggies too!
All people need to do is check with their local extension service for their average last frost date.
The extension service is an underused resource.
That’s for sure. Many don’t even know they exist.
I agree Jason, ‘don’t plant tender annuals too early’ But I do the same, it’s seems to me the summer finally came and ohhh, the cold days again. My tomatoes grow in the greenhouse, I don’t want to risk.
Good thing you have the greenhouse!
In Maine, Memorial Day is our planting date for tender annuals, and my gardening father drummed this so firmly into my little head that I do not deviate. But I do understand the impulse 😉 Glad your flowers made it.
Sounds like your dad was a wise gardener and a good teacher.
Glad to read your plants recovered Jason, always a risk to get carried away with ourselves when the weather takes a brief turn for the better. I accidentally left some Dahlia and Begonia plants outside one night and lost the lot 2 weeks ago!
Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that! That must have made you sad.
You would think it would get easier over time to be patient at spring planting time, but it never seems to. I always have to restrain myself. Apparently I’m in good company.
I have to restrain myself also, and I don’t always succeed.
We’ve learned the hard way, here in upstate New York, about planting too early. Logic says don’t do it. And yet…and yet…there’s the part of us that wants to gamble. And the part so tired of winter. It’s a battle each year.
For all of us, some lessons must be learned over and over again.
May 30th. here. This year that date seemed to hold.
So your in a colder zone than we are. Huh.
Your tithonias are way ahead of mine. The germination rate this year was awful. I am hanging on to courgettes in the greenhouse until this recent cold patch ends. It is never easy!
The Tithonias have really been making up for lost time over the last week.
Memorial Day weekend is our time for planting tender annuals. This year, I put some (like morning glories) out a few days early because we had an unusually warm May and the forecast did not include any chance of a surprise late-may cold snap.
I love Morning Glories, but I’ve had very bad luck with them the last few years.
Oh yes….it’s certainly worth holding out! Nothing worse than seeing wilted plants!xxx
True, it’s very disheartening.
Oh, I shudder when I see people around here put out their marigolds and petunias in early May or even late April because we’ve had a week-long warm spell! I generally wait until Memorial Day to put out any annuals besides pansies. This year, I went a little earlier, but not before I analyzed the long range forecasts and was 99% certain the nighttime temps wouldn’t drop too low! Now, your post has reminded me that I actually have started some late-started Tithonia under lights in the basement, and I better go water them now! One nursery near me started selling the plants this year, but they want $3.99 a piece for them. I decided I’d rather start them from seed, even though it’s a bit late for that.
If you are able to grow the Tithonia from seed it is certainly worth it. In my experience they catch up fast if they have heat and sun!
Hello Jason, we had an extended cold Spring that was so late that the difference between a dreary cold day and full clear sunshine the next day could be 15C. The plants didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t what was going on, the weather forecasters didn’t know what was going on. Thankfully, things are starting to calm down and warm up but Spring must be the riskiest month for gardeners.
Over here we seem to be rushing into summer now.