Too soon!

Are these containers of the 'if it gets too cold I haul them inside' type?

The stores seem to do this every year!! (mostly at non-garden nursery stores). I think they hope that the plants will die and then people will buy again. At least when the nurseries put things out this early they generally have warnings about not planting until late May etc.

Most hardy perennials can go out now and it is good to get them in and established. It boogles my mind when I saw the other day at Lowes someone buying tomatos plants and thought those will be toast! My ground is so cold right now i can't imagine planting outside for a month.

Yes, these are my plastic window boxes, to be hauled inside in case of frost. Maybe I'll just keep them inside until Mother's Day at least. Glad I'm not the only having doubts about planting out already.

I went to an Open House this weekend, and lo and behold, there was a tomato plant already in the ground! This was just north of Boston, but I think it's definitely too cold for ground planting for tomatoes!

Getting close....people around here typically wait until Mother's Day (around May 9th-ish). But, the 10 day forecast has no frost, or anything close, for the next 10 days. Can't wait!!

I can't believe it is almost May 1st. It feels like it should be approaching May 31st! It has already been such a long growing season. I haven't done any annuals yet, because I've been too busy with getting the garden ready for the growing season to do it, but if I had time, I would have put some out in containers already. I usually put something out a little early anyway, but this year I could have done so two weeks earlier than usual. Last year, my Lilacs bloomed on May 7th, this year they started blooming the 25th of April. Last year, on the 28th of April, I had daffodils just finishing up in a full sun bed and this year, they have been finished for two weeks. I was putting pansies and strawberry plants in whiskey barrels on 4/27 last year.

As for tomatos, I have r*aised beds that warm up early and using wall of windows, I 've had good luck putting them out 3 weeks earlier and they didn't just sit there, they were actively growing. There are some annuals that are pretty cold hardy, like pansies and stock and a few others. When I've had the time and had all my materials ready to go, I have enjoyed having very early containers of annuals out about a month before the summer annuals.. I don't remember a time when it didn't work out.

I have a cherry tomato and a gerber daisy in pots - but that's it. Those along with a couple of myrtle topiaries (not annuals, but..) out on my stoop can come in if threatened by frost. The only other annuals I'll have will wait a couple more weeks since they wouldn't be easily brought in. Plus the selection right now isn't that great anyway.

Freeze warning tonight here in central Connecticut :(

the short answer is "I hope not"

Idabean,

that's the perfect answer for anyone in MA in zone 5 or lower.

It's way to early to plant out anything yet. Any attempts to do so this early is more in the way of trying to "fool mother nature", and she doesn't like that at all.

In the past several years we've had crazy weather, really warm, really cold, below freezing temps in early and mid May, and snowflakes in Waltham on May 20th 2005.

I lost a few WS annuals in May 2005 because I forgot to cover a couple of them over night and them temps went down into the 20's in zone 5 near the NH border.

The rule of thumb used to be to plant nothing before Memorial day, which was always May 31.
Now Memorial day varies, but I pretty much still use that as a guideline for planting out.

Mid May would be the earliest I would plant out anything, and those would be some real hardy type annuals, poppies and maybe some bachelor buttons and maybe a few real hardy perennials.

But, also remember that even if they are perennials or real hardy annuals, you are planting out seedlings, not well grown potted plants.

Anything you buy at the nurseries in annuals, have been forced to grow in greenhouses under artificial conditions. They are really not used to the outdoors and the crazy swing of temps.

You risk losing anything you plant out now to the crazy whims of mother nature and the New England weather.

Fran