Should I wait?

GardenAmateur

These plug plants were rather pathetic when I picked them up last week but now doing rather well. I am a bit worried that they will romp away before it's truly warm enough for them to go out. Particularly the petunias which you can see have started to flower already.  Long term forecast seems to suggest a frost around 1/5 where it will go down too 2 and Google seems to suggest Petunias wouldn't like it but they will survive.  I've no room to repot them whilst keeping them indoors what to do?

Dovefromabove

When I’m faced with that quandary the plants go out into a sheltered spot in the daytime and they get brought in onto the dining table after tea (with a protective plastic sheet on the table!).  

If there’s any danger you might forget to bring them in you can set an alarm!  😆.  

They go out again before breakfast. 

Hostafan1

I'd pinch out the flowers to make bigger , stronger plants. Flowers use a huge amount of energy.

Dovefromabove

Hostafan1 said:

I'd pinch out the flowers to make bigger , stronger plants. Flowers use a huge amount of energy.

Agree ... I’d do that too 😊 

Buttercupdays

My suggestion would be to pinch out the flower buds on the petunias.

This should make them grow sideshoots and make for bushier plants and ultimately more flowers.

Keep them well fed, maybe Vitax or similar first for the foliage, then a general feed and they should stay happy in their pots for a bit longer.

raisingirl

Do you have a sunny wall that you could stand them against? You need to harden them off by putting them out in the day and bringing them in at night, as Dove describes, in any case. But having done that for the next week or so, you could pot them on and let them grow on standing somewhere sheltered before you put them out into the garden towards the end of May. Unless you live a long way north, that's usually reasonable 'safe' for tender plants. In the meantime, you can pinch the flowers off the petunias to stop them exhausting themselves by flowering too soon.