An early spring certainly doesn't mean you won't have any more freezing or frosty weather.

Although mature parsley plants are cold hardy in most areas, they are a biennial. This means that once they go through winter they will flower, make seed, and die. You may be able to get a small harvest before it dies the second year, but most people treat it as an annual and replant each year or let the plant drop its seed to produce new plants later in the season.

Young parsley plants, especially the Italian types, may be tricked into thinking they have gone through winter if exposed to near freezing temperatures for too long (like a week or two of very cold nights and cool days). It will then complete its life cycle in the current year.

Any plant that is cold hardy and has not been outside for the winter will need to be hardened off by gradually exposing it to outside temperature, wind, and sun. It takes a week or more to toughen up the plant. It is best not to plant young starts until after the danger of freezing is over in your area. Older plants that have gone through the winter outside can be planted whenever the soil can be worked.

Here in Zone 7, in the particular area I'm at, the date to put out seedlings is after April 15. It's usually then you can be assured that there will be no more frost or cold winds. Even though it's going to be almost 80 degrees here today at the end of March, I know what can happen suddenly. Better safe that sorry and replanting.

Lots of my winter hardy plants did well. The Mexican oregano, the thymes, the rosemary. But my cilantro patch is coming back huge already, the onion and garlic chives are coming up, the mints (of course) and my lemon verbena. And the strawberry plants are coming back in patches.

And soon, thankfully, I can move my citrus trees back outside. So glad for that. They faired well over the winter. I am pleased with them. I got quite a crop of Meyer lemons and Sanbokan lemons (Sambo Tree) this year. The Eureka lemon tree is much younger and I intentionally pinched off young fruitlets to encourage the plant to put it's energy into growing instead of producing fruit. Worked well too. They've all grown well inside through the winter.

I'm in zone 7 (Vancouver Island) and have root parsley "Hamburg" started under lights and put outside on the warmer days. I'm impatient to get it out of pots and into the garden - it's a root crop that should go deep so I think it should be transplanted ASAP? But I don't know how hardy it is. Around here the traditional plant-out date for tender plants is near the end of May - but that's almost 12 weeks away. Anybody got experience with root parsley and its vulnerability to cold and/or being kept potted too late?

Root crop or not, if you started seeds indoors you will have to wait for temperatures to start to warm so you can harden the young plants off. Think of it like this, you and I are "hardy" to winter temperatures. We can tolerate much, even occasionally being outside in freezing temperatures without a coat without substantial harm. The same could not be said of a newborn human baby even though they eventually be as hardy as you or I.

You could also try direct sowing some parsley seed outside now if your ground is open. When the ground warms, it will sprout.

FataMorgana

FataMorgana; Thanks for your response. I do understand about hardening off; to some extent I'm already doing that. I think your suggestion, direct-seeding some root parsley now, is a good one - but we're having (so far!) an unusually mild & early spring. People are scared that plants are budding too early and will be damaged if/when we get late frost. I suppose direct-seeded parsely could also be killed if it germinates "prematurely." I just don't have a feel for how hardy it might be. Ah, well, it's all a gamble. I'll try to hedge my bets by using various approaches.

I have not grown root parsley yet, but will be trying Arat this year. Parsley has such a long germination time, that I would try direct seeding some. But, you may want to also have a frost blanket handy if you get a short cold spell. Same with trying to transplant some--if the soil temp is warm enough, you may just have to keep the green from freezing hard.

Balloonflower; Direct seeding, with intent to protect when required, seems like a good strategy. Meantime I've made some tallish (5-inch) rolled-paper pots and transplanted my existing small seedlings into them; hoping they will be able to grow fairly long straight roots before I plant them out later, complete with their paper "pots".

You say you have Arat seed. Have you tried various strains? Around here there's no distinction; it's all just Hamburg, Where do you get your seed?

Balloonflower; Sorry for my superfluous questions about different "Hamburgs." Of course you said you haven't grown root parsley before. Have you eaten it before? If not I think you're in for a treat.

I haven't eaten it before either. The seed came from Johhny's. I am looking forward to trying it. We just pulled the last of our parsnips--can't grow enough of those, and I'm also quite fond of Celeriac too. Figured I couldn't go wrong with root parsley. I'm just itching to get gardening this year, but our season won't really start till mid May. Last year it was 20 and 10" of snow on our "last frost date". My poor maters did fine in their water walls with frost blankets though.