What is your zone and who are the perennials? Fall planting works well for me so I would pot them up unless the plant is a rampant grower.

the issue is.. having a ESTABLISHED root mass... when the heat of summer hits ..

if you shove them in mother earth now.. in a month when the heat starts to build.. the root mass will be ready ..

if you delay planting for 2 or 3 weeks ... then you will disturbed roots when the heat starts building ...

i dont really know what you mean by 'quite small'.. but they would have to be very tiny for me to keep them potted.. and if that was the case i would probably return them to the seller.. and demand my money back ... who is sending such small plants ... does the price reflect the size ..

ive harmed more plants by over loving and over thinking everything.. than i ever did just slapping those things int eh ground.. watering them once and then forgetting about them.. in other words.. benign neglect often works.. lol ..

ken

I routinely pot up any bare root perennials and those sold in small containers for at least a season before planting out. If you are buying anything other than cast iron perennials, they benefit by the extra time to develop a proper root system and a decent size before releasing them out into the big, wide world and the predations of slugs, bunnies or deer or being overwhelmed by larger, more established plants already in the garden. It is easier to care for and monitor them in a container than risk overlooking them if planted out with everything else to fend on their own.

I purchased a clematis last year in a 4.5” pot and promptly planted it in my garden. It was a tiny little thing, and it ended up getting lost amongst my other perennials, which were older and more vigorous. I ended up stepping on it and crushing its tiny little vines beneath my garden boots because I couldn’t see it! Luckily it wasn’t dead, just damaged, so I dug it up and placed it into a large container for the summer, which I finally planted in the ground a few months later when it was larger and much more hardy.

So, if you can plant it where it’ll be protected from your tootsies and also the neighborhood bunnies, I’d say put it in the ground. If not, pot it up and plant it in the fall.

Thanks everyone...I am in zone 6b and it has been an unusually cold spring so I guess my thought was to 'baby them'. But truthfully they are not so small they need to be returned, I get tired of watering potted plants after a while, and I definitely don't want to wait the whole season to plant up my bare garden space so in the ground they will go.

I am far more successful planting in the ground than trying to keep plants alive in pots, so in general I plant things in the ground. I often put a stake next to them so I remember where they are.