Is your soil ready? Make the hole as big as the pot and slip the entire unpotted mass right into it. If you have to break up the mass, I would wait until freezes are over. Don't expect bloom this year. If your pots haven't been fertilized that soil could be nutrient deficient. Adding low-nitrogen fertilizer to the new bed would be advisable.

I doubt they will be any colder in the ground than in pots. (unless you have them in a protected area??)

I might even suspect a few blooms on short stalks stalks if the root ball is not disturbed. I have had a few winter over in pots bloom after an early March unpotting. Unpot now if the plants have used up all the nutrients in the pot, but leave the root ball alone.

Walter Moores

I might even suspect a few blooms on short stalks stalks if the root ball is not disturbed. I have had a few winter over in pots bloom after an early March unpotting. Unpot now if the plants have used up all the nutrients in the pot, but leave the root ball alone.

Walter Moores