plant each one by itself a few inches apart in the ground, you may mix colors of the same plant also for variety.

google some pix of the plant you have ...

if they look like they will be one foot round in summer... then plant them about one foot apart ...

some peeps like bare mulched soil in between individual plants ... so they would space them about 2 feet apart ...

at this point in your learning curve.. just plant them in mother earth ...

shake/squeeze them out of the cell pack.. gently pull apart the roots if they are twirling round and round ... dont be all that gentle ...and water them in real good ...

and they will probably show transplant shock for a few days ... droopy ..... if you can plant on a rainy or cloudy day.. less sun stress ...

keep them damp ... until they perk up.. and then insert finger ... and water.. next time they seem to be drying out ....

just go for it.. and trust me.. we all killed thousands of plants over the years.. and that is how we learned ... by playing in the dirt ....

ken

ps: it would be nice to know what plants... what your soil is.. where you are ... if you really want some more info.. more specific to your project ...

What Ken said, plus pay close attention to the tags that come with the plants. They will tell you if your plant likes sun or shade, how tall it will get and how wide it will grow. Plant sun lovers in sun and shade lovers in shade. Obvious? You'd be surprised how many people pay no attention. Also, measure out your spacing. If the tag says plant 6 to 10 inches apart, plant them at six. That way, the plants grow together and shade out weeds in between. Check the projected plant height. Put the taller plants behind the shorter ones. One can't miss idea is to plant several plants of the same kind and/or color together in a mass.

If something grows well for you this year, plant more of it next year!

Also, keep checking back here to just lurk and read about what others are doing, or to ask any question you can think of. We all started out where you are and we love to enable new gardening addicts.

Martha

If you treat the roots with some care, you probably won't have 'transplant shock '. If the roots are very crowded, use a pair of sharp scissors or snips to make a few vertical snips rather than ripping apart with your fingers.

Ken, you've often mentioned that your new transplants suffer a bit after planting and I've always been perplexed about what you're doing to cause this. And they might be wilty for a few days? Really?

Does this happen with everything you transplant or just annuals? What do you think might be the reason for this....I'm truly mystified.

I expected that I might see some problems with transplanting when I moved to northern Alabama and its hard, red clay soil. But to this day, I have never had an annual, shrub, or tree wilt or drop leaves after transplanting.

If you treat the roots with some care, you probably won't have 'transplant shock '. If the roots are very crowded, use a pair of sharp scissors or snips to make a few vertical snips rather than ripping apart with your fingers.

Ken, you've often mentioned that your new transplants suffer a bit after planting and I've always been perplexed about what you're doing to cause this. And they might be wilty for a few days? Really?

Does this happen with everything you transplant or just annuals? What do you think might be the reason for this....I'm truly mystified.

I expected that I might see some problems with transplanting when I moved to northern Alabama and its hard, red clay soil. But to this day, I have never had an annual, shrub, or tree wilt or drop leaves after transplanting.