When to plant out verbena bonariensis

Hi everyone,
You may remember my last thread about sowing some verbena bonariensis, well, I'm pleased to say I did just that, and now have several young plants in the windowsill in 9cm pots.
When would be best to get then planted out in the garden?
If I can get them out soon-ish, it will free up space in the window sill for sowing some more seeds, but I do want to give them the best possible chance, so will wait longer if needed.
Sadly, made the fatal mistake of planting out six teddy bear sunflowers and every single one was munched by slugs/snails. So, I need to sow some more!

Likewise, I don't want the same thing happening to my verbena when they go outside, I plan to get some grit to put all around them, to try and protect them as I will not use slug pellets as we try to be wildlife friendly as much as possible. Hopefully that will keep them safe.

Hope you're all enjoying your gardens

 

Hiya Sienna, now is good.

However, I would never plant out anything in 9cm pots. Those here not planted yet are in 2 or 3 litre pots. The rest already planted.

They should not be on a windowsill now anyway.....they are reasonably hardy plants. I would pot on now into 1 litre pots and leave them outside. In 3 weeks or less they will have filled those pots and then you can plant out nice size plants

Re slugs and snails, I'm not aware that they attack verbena bonariensis; they dont here anyway. If you plant things out when very small any slug attack will be proportionally more damaging. Plant out when bigger and if they are attacked (less likely cos the foliage is less succulent) the damage will be less

 

How big are they? My VB have survived outside over winter but they are way behind the usual due to the late snow we had. No flowers yet; some years they flower in March and April.

 

Brilliant, I hadn't thought of potting on and putting them outside, that is a good idea and will free up my windowsill too. I don't have much room for sowing/seedlings so anything that can free up space is great thanks @Verdun

@Redwing my original plant that we had in the front garden didn't survive the cold winter sadly, it was only planted out last summer, the first verbena we've ever had, and I was so hoping it would be OK, but it either didn't like the cold or the clay soil possibly being too wet over winter. So these new ones will hopefully do better this year now, they'll probably be better established by the time winter comes round again anyway.

They're still smallish but roots beginning to show at the bottom of the 9cm pots so I'll take @Verdun advice and get them potted on now.

 

Hey! Come the autumn, keep a watch out for verbena seedlings. There could be dozens; dig them up, pot them up and overwinter indoors Sienna

 

Fingers crossed, that would be lovely.

 

Hi @Sienna's Blossom - my verbena survived the winter in cold garden, but are only just sprouting new growths - as @Redwing said, they are slow this year. Once you get a few settled, you'll find they start surviving and seeding.

 

Same here, it survived -6/7c for a couple of nights two years running.

 

Hi @Sienna's Blossom, I sowed some v.b. this spring in the greenhouse. After hardening them off I planted them in the border last week, and they are doing well up here in Scotland, where temperatures are unfortunately dropping as low as 9 degrees C at night. I have a large slug and snail problem, but they haven't touched the verbena.

 

That's good to hear @Irmemac thanks for letting me know. Ours are outside now in their bigger pots and seem to be doing ok so far, so hopefully in a few weeks they'll be planted out and will remain slug and snail proofed! It's encouraging to hear yours haven't been nibbled!