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make them your last purchase before heading home. “Cooking” in the care is no better for plants than it is for frozen desserts.
Be Sure Seedlings
Don’t Dry Out
Once home, protect the seedlings until you are ready to plant them. Place them in a shady spot and water if necessary. The trick is to be sure the plants never dry out. One hot day of neglect cari result in dead, damaged or stunted plants.
Most bedding plants are sold in plastic cell packs or trays in which each small plant has its own separate mini-pot or cell. When removing a seedling from the cell pack, don’t tug it out by its top. Push the root ball our by pressing on the bottom and sides of the individual cell.
Watering the seedling a few hours before you transplant them will aid in getting them out of the container, and help them recover faster from transplant stress. Put your plants into the garden as quickly as possible, preferably on a calm, cloudy day. Water the plants thoroughly. Applying a very dilute solution of a water-soluble fertilizer (about 1/4 of the rate recommended for mature plants) will get the new' plants off to a good start.
Protect Newest Plants
From Hot Sun
If you must plant on a sunny day, plant, mis't, water and them protect your newest plants from the sun by shading them. Use inverted strawberry baskets, cardboard, a board elevated on bricks — anything to shade the plants for the first few days.
With appropriate care, your bedding plants will quickly re-establish themselves and reward you with color, beauty, and fragrance until frost.
Dr Diane Relf is a horticulture specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension and is a member of the faculty of Virginia Tech.
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