Are these rudbeckia ready to plant?

Stephanie newish gardener

Hi
These seedlings are generally doing fine but I don't know whether they are quite ready to go in the ground.
Any thoughts please?  Don't want them to just get eaten!
NB they've been in a sheltered wooden mini greenhouse for the last ten days while I've been away, hence some are maybe a bit leggy. They were also totally waterlogged after generous watering by the neighbour, but they look better than they did yesterday!  

Lyn

I wouldn’t put them out yet,  what size pots have you got them in at the moment? 

Stephanie newish gardener

Mostly 8cm, plus some 9cm and some 10cm, though most of the 10cm pots have three plants in them. I pricked them out the night before we went off to the west coast rowing,  I thought there were about 30 but I actually potted on over 70! To say it was done in a hurry is probably an understatement..... 

Stephanie newish gardener

I also have some cosmos and they are probably more or less good to go. Trouble is, ten days away means lots and lots of weeds to clear before I can plant anything!  

BobTheGardener

If you have room and any kind of slug problem, I'd grow them on for a few more weeks, or even for the rest of this year, re-potting into 15cm pots.  All my herbaceous perennials grown from seed are only planted in their 2nd year, when they are generally large enough to survive mollusc attacks.  With that many rudbeckia seedlings, you can also afford to sacrifice any which aren't growing strongly along the way (as would happen naturally in the wild) and produce a higher quality display.

Stephanie newish gardener

@BobTheGardener I'd hoped for lots of flowers in the garden this year, so do you think these won't flower this year? They were sowed later than I'd intended due to just being too busy, but I had at least hoped to see flowers.
I sowed lots of other seeds too but most just didn't germinate.  I feel a trip to the GC coming on....  

Fairygirl

I think those would struggle very badly if planted out now. I doubt that the root systems would be anything like hefty enough.
They'll probably grow on a fair bit over the next month or so, but you'll just have to wait and see how sturdy they get. 

BobTheGardener

As @Fairygirl says, they need to grow a fair bit before they are ready to go out, and if the weather is good you may still get a display this year.  It is easier to give them some tlc when growing-on in pots, and they will develop more quickly than if planted out now (which would result in them all being slugged-to-death in my garden at the moment!)

Lyn

They look like the perennial type, do you know the name,  if so, they won’t flower this year,  keep potting on and plant out in the Spring.
i started out with 3 bought plugs,  i now have so much of it, at least 6 huge three ft diameter clumps. 

Stephanie newish gardener

That all sounds fair enough.  I often think that the info on the back of seed packets is optimistic and written for ideal conditions,  which of course we don't have. It's been nice here while we were away, but the local weatherman is talking about overnight temps of 2C in a couple of days!! 
I haven't seen too many slugs, partly because it's been very dry, but I have seen empty snail shells, courtesy of a local population of mistle thrushes.  Every little helps...! 

Fairygirl

Sow everything a month later up here than they say on packets