Big Daddy, I see all the garden stores are selling beautiful annuals now! When can I start planting?!

Welcome to Utah and the Annual Spring Torture! Every year, the big box stores start to put out plants very early to create excitement for gardening and this leads to smaller greenhouses feeling the pressure to start selling too or lose their potential sales to the behemoths! I love to see the flowers out as it makes it feel more like spring and it does have it's intended effect, making me begin to think about my beds and how I want to plant up this year. The problem is, our nights can still be far too cold for all but the hardiest annuals, like pansies, right now, even in the southern parts of the state. They have greenhouses to protect the plants from cold snaps, but if we plant up in the yard, we won't be in the situation to protect them. Would you like to do a couple of hanging baskets or pots that you can move inside during cold nights? Feel free to have at it then! Everything else will have to wait until after Mother's Day as a general rule. Depending on where you live though, that might not even be late enough! If you are at a higher elevation, you may have hard frosts right on through June and that would surely wipe out any unprotected annual in your landscape. If you live in these areas, you likely already know that you will have to wait or choose other plants. If you plan ahead, you can get early color through the use of early flowering bulbs or go the commercial maintenance manager and use pansies with the intention of swapping them out for showier annuals when the temps will support them. It's your money and your choice, be creative if you just need to have a particular plant, but be smart! - BD