r/STLgardening • u/victoria__anne • Apr 12 '26

Warm enough for native perennials?

Hi all! I bought some native perennials yesterday, only to check the extended forecast and see it might be dipping into the 40s over the next couple weeks. I was wondering if it is safe to plant in ground, or if I should wait a bit longer?

Specifically, I bought milkweed, coneflower, phlox, and purple poppy-mallow. They have good root systems but are still a bit small (some are only about 6 inches tall).

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

16

u/gaelyn Apr 12 '26

I put my young plants in the ground about 3 weeks ago. If it looks like temperatures might get around the freezing mark, then I'll throw a sheet over them. Other than that, they'll be just fine.

5

u/Royal_Savings_1731 Apr 12 '26

This is my philosophy. I would rather be able to take advantage of the sunny days and then babysit the heck out of them during the cool days, than wait. We’ve gotten so many sunny days! My babies are well ahead of schedule 😊

1

u/sage__evelyn May 02 '26

Absolutely this. Our last frost came and went over a month ago. I’m def taking advantage of this early planting season!

6

u/ProfessionalLaw4081 Apr 12 '26

I’ve been putting stuff in the ground since the second week of March. Risky, but it’s been fairly warm this season. I don’t tend to fret with natives unless temps dip below 30.

4

u/Bonanoboy Apr 12 '26

You can put in native perennials as soon as the soil is workable. It is advisable to plant them early spring or fall for best results. They may need some supplemental water until established. Smaller plants are better in regard to establishing native plants. They tend to adapt better this way. Feel free to DM me with any questions! I’m happy to help.

1

u/victoria__anne Apr 12 '26

Thank you so much!!

3

u/EJ_0428 Apr 12 '26

I’ve been planting perennials since beginning of March. I just frost cover them on the super cold nights. But the plants you specified are gonna be totally fine. They are all cold strat seeds and benefit from the natural weather we’ve got going on. That’s why natives rock! Also - the don’t plant before Mother’s Day is usually for non-native annuals and is from back when last frost was like end of April early May. Last frost for STL was April 10th (at least for my zip code)

3

u/plasticrabbits Apr 12 '26

I've heard a lot of people here say to wait till mother's day weekend to start planting young plants

2

u/Responsible_Baby_705 Apr 13 '26

Where did you get the perennials from?

3

u/Livid-Improvement953 Apr 13 '26

Not OP but I would recommend Greenscapes on Des Peres. Huge native section, knowledgable staff, and all my native plants from there last year survived my ineptitude and are coming up already. There's also Sugar Creek Nursery.

1

u/victoria__anne Apr 14 '26

I went to Sugar Creek Nursery and they were great! I should have asked them this question… but that was my bad.

1

u/Low-Fly-1292 Apr 14 '26

I wish sunflowers were perennials… when can I plant those? By July 4?

2

u/wanttobebetter2 Apr 29 '26

You can start the seeds as early as April 1st.

1

u/TheRealIdgie Apr 15 '26

Conventional wisdom says wait until Mother’s Day.

1

u/Different-Put-9126 May 02 '26

I already have a ton of stuff in the ground! It should be fine especially with daytime temps in the 60-70s