Hardening off in Central Scotland

PeachAlba

Hello!  My first attempts at sewing seeds has been really quite successful - my house is surprisingly packed with greenery!  I've got cerinthes, echinops, lavender, rudbeckia, marigolds, foxgloves, echinacea, knautia, delphinium, osteospermum and more, plus about 6 dahlia tubers in pots currently about 2 feet high. It's been quite exciting.

However, I need to start getting my house back and hardening them off.  I have one 6 shelf blow away greenhouse and wanted to know if I moved plants into that would I still need to only do it for a couple of hours at a time, or could I leave them in there and just open the door now and then?  I plan to landscape the front garden (May holiday weekend) and so these plants will ultimately go in there.  

If anyone can give me advice on how to schedule this that would be fab.

I don't want to wreck them now by getting it wrong! 

Fairygirl

Hi P.Alba - I'd get all those hardy perennials [not sure if marigolds are hardy?] out into your little growhouse, but also start putting them outside during the day, assuming they're all a reasonable size just now in their own pots.
If they're little more than seedlings, you'd be better waiting until they're a bit bigger, but you could still put them in the growhouse, then wait until they're a better size to put hem out during the day. 
The dahlias can't go outside until much later, because of the frost danger, but they may be ok in the growhouse just now if they're big enough. I don't grow them now, so can't remember how well they do here.

I'd wait a while before planting out the perennials though. Small plants will be slow to get going unless they have a good root system. By June, they will grow on well if planted out. 

Purplerain

My advice would be to use your instinct and do the hokey cokey with your plants. Your aim is getting them used to outside conditions by the end of May. I put mine out until tea time now then bring them in. Others I keep snug in the cold frame.

If your greenhouse is firmly secured then opening it up all day and closing it at night would work until frost has passed. You have done well raising all those seeds.

PeachAlba

This is a great help!  Thanks so much.  It's all guess work at the moment with me so I'm dead chuffed to have got them to this stage!  

LisaJ73

Watch out for the weather later this week.  I'm north east of Glasgow and Friday's looking like a chilly night so make sure anything that's not hardy or is a bit on the wee side is somewhere cosy!

Mr. Vine Eye

Argh! This thread has reminded me that I need to close my blowaway greenhouse! I left it open last night by mistake, then forgot again.