Do what will involve you being able to keep them watered through the summer. If you decide to keep them in the pots until preferred fall planting time it looks like they need to be fertilized in the meantime.

I would get them planted if you are able to keep watered, they would be much happier than in the hot black nursery pots. Those little seedlings appear to be weeds to me. Of course this could be due to my eyesight LOL.

Even though this is not a desirable time to plant, they would be much happier (and easier to tend) in the ground than in that container.

Liatris are cormous and spread to form largish clumps, somewhat similar to crocosmia. While you can grow them easily from seeds, any new starts in the same pot are likely to have generated from tiny corms rather than seeds.

gardengal48 Thanks for your reply. I agree that they would probably do better planted, so that is what I will do. However, if you look closely at the last photo, the corms are sitting on the top of the soil. How deep can I plant. Will the stems rot if I sink the whole pot about 3" or deeper? Please advise.

The corms should be about 3" under the soil so I would indeed plant them deeper when the time comes. And they shouldn't rot.....no more than any other bulb stems rot as they emerge from the bulb or corm but before they clear the soil line.

OK sounds good - thank you