With the nice weather this week everyone coming in are asking when can we plant. Well, it is still real early and things like flowers with the exception of pansies are out of the question. But there are things that can be planted now. If you have spring bulbs like gladiolus that you either bought this spring or overwintered indoors from last season, they can be planted in the ground outside now. They are still dormant and will start to sprout only when the time is right. Likewise garlic and onions will be able to go in the ground soon as long as your soil is not to soggy. 

Right now we have dormant fruit trees and berry bushes that have all been hardened off this spring and can be planted now as well. We usually tell customers that are shopping with us, that if it is outside here, it can be outside at your house. If it’s in our greenhouse here, it needs to stay in your house for a little while longer. The night time temperatures are still getting down into the mid-twenties some nights and plants that have leaved out or budded out can get damaged by those cold temperatures.  Keep an eye on the maple trees and use them as a guide as to when you can plant. 

When the maple leaves are roughly two-thirds unfurled it is generally safe to start planting things like the flowerbed or vegetable garden. You see the maple leaves (and other leaves too) hold in heat at night to help protect from freezing, similar to putting a sheet over your plants to protect them from frost. The maples are starting to bud out, but they are a long way away from being two-thirds unfurled. So hold off on the garden for right now. Most evergreens can be planted now as long as they have been overwintered outdoors or hardened off by being left outdoors for the past few weeks. 

We just received our first orders of evergreens this week and one of our suppliers is from southern New Jersey where the weather is already much warmer than our area. Now evergreens like junipers and arborvitea can handle almost any temperature so a chilly night won’t bother them, but boxwood that has already started to send up new shoots will be effected if we get some cold nights down in the lower twenties. The new growth will have a tendency to brown out and die off, even though the old leaves are just fine. 

This is one of the problems with getting plants in this early in the season, so why do we do it? Because you only catch spring fever once a year and some people catch it early. After being cooped up all winter long and looking at dead grass for the past few months, many people are eager to get back out into the yard and with weather like what we saw this week, who can blame them. But remember to take it slow, don’t bite off more than you can chew and pace yourself. 

We have plenty of time for planting from now through the end of June, even though many people seem to think that it all has to be done by Memorial Day Weekend. Memorial Day Weekend used to be the start of the planting season back when I started in the garden center for my father in the early 80’s. The farmers would tell you, you don’t plant anything before then, but now everyone wants it done by then. You may be able to plant a little earlier this year as the full moon in May is early on the 5th this year. 

Usually the full moon is the coldest night of the month where there is a good chance for frost. If we get to May 5th “Cinco de Mayo” and the maple leaves are looking large, then you might just get a chance to plant before Memorial Day Weekend. So don’t plant to early or you maybe planting twice or three times, etc.