starting perennials for summer 2011

I started many seeds inside using lights and sometimes paper towels. It was very successful. Now I am ready to start seeds for the fall. Is anyone else doing this?? What are you sowing?

Forget-me-nots, Wallflowers and Sweet William---biennials I start in June.
But this year I am still working on getting the previous wintersow and indoor starts out.

What good ideas. I especially love tall Sweet William. I really do want Canterbury Bells too.
I have already started about 4 kinds of foxgloves and lots of kinds of hollyhocks. I have never gown wallflowers or forget-me-nots though. This may be the year I try them. Thanks.

Canterbury Bells are a neat biennial too.
I have not been successful with seeding them,but I like to buy a couple
and the following year they bloom.
One year I had a tall double form which was spectacular.
I have not found that same variety, but will look for it.

Good morning,
I had great success this year starting vegetables and some perennials under grow lamps, so I thought why not keep going and start some more perennials now. I talked with someone at a seed company and they saw no reason to not do it now. I won't be able to actually start them for two more weeks.
Does that seem crazy, to try to germinate and transplant a large batch of perennials this late in the year? We're in zone 3b/4.
Tks!
Cheryl

Yes, it makes good sense to start seedlings now and by fall they should be ready to go in ground with perhaps a good mulch when it gets freezing again.

Thanks for your thoughts. I know they won't be much to look at this year, but it sure would help up fill out very empty area much more quickly.
Tks!
Cheryl

Cheryl, Just try to get them into the ground 4-6 weeks before a killing frost. They need this time to fully acclimate and to get reserves into the roots for next seasons growth.

Thanks for the comment. I think we'll have plenty of time before a frost.I can't wait to get started, but we're going away next week. We'll get started right when we get back.
Thanks!
Cheryl

With all the ways to start seeds easily, you will have to be careful not to
over produce. Add cuttings to that and you might be in real trouble!

Now when I order a plant, the first question I have is will it make seeds? will it need help in making seeds?

Gloria, I purchased 3 Siberian wallflower plants this Spring because they had pretty purple flowers blooming(that's my favorite color) but I couldn't seem to find much on the gardening websites or internet about these plants and the tag that came with them gave even less information so I dug them up and put into yard waste bag. I probably should have given them a year to see what they would do but too late now. Have you ever grown these before? Do you cut back the stems after the flowers are finished blooming? Will they rebloom if stems are cut back? Do they reseed?

Are these flowers that you all are mentioning, are you starting these now or plan to do so in the Fall. What method will you be using? Under the lights, direct sow or in milk jugs? Once they germinate, will you plant them in your flowerbeds and will these produce blooms for you next Spring 2011? I have some larkspur seeds that somebody suggested does better from Fall planting so I'm going to try that. What other flowers can benefit by Fall planting?

A good resource for this summertime starting of perennials and biennials is
the Stokes Seeds on- line catalogue. It has lists of what to start July, August or September.
Here in zone 3 , I think that I would move up some of the September ones to late August so as to have larger transplants in the fall. And mulch them when freezing comes.

I am going to start some Biennials now, I know it's late but I really want to see blooms on them next year and I haven't even planted out all my stuff this year yet!

Scott, I am going right to Stokes; I used to order from them (before I had a computer, but I didn't know about on line sales.)

Pippi, for lights all you need is a little space; ordinary florescent light and a shelf or floor that you can start seeds under. I use styrofoam cups and have a lot of room. I put a drainage hole in the bottom with a pen or my finger and put a foldable plastic sandwich bag over it after I have put the seeds in/on the soil. A goose neck small lamp would even do. Or you can go for larger 48" lights (shop lights) and put them where ever you can find room. It's really easy. Of course, they have to be hardened off. I put them in shade or use very find (and cheap) nylon
netting folded a couple of times to provide shading to flats so they can
adjust.

I say use all the methods: winter sowing (it's just great!)lights, and paper towel/coffee filters, Actually, I usually don't direct sow; but this year I am going to scatter larkspur, shirley poppies, CA poppies,Cleome, cosmos and other and a few other seeds so that they
will fill in my perennial beds. This is all in the fall. We'll see.. All of them are "self -seeders,"

Medirith, I think some of the biennials are the most beautiful: verbascum, Canterbury Bells, and Foxglove are my favorites. But I am experimenting on starting foxgloves on proliferations growing on
the stalks after they have bloomed. I pulled them of and put them in a big pot of growing medium and this morning they look great!

To read this, you might think I have beautiful gardens, but I am a weak
68 and it is arduous work keeping the weeds down so I don't

My yard is not great this year because of many distractions including my 70th birthday and downsizing the house. But I am already planning for next year by starting biennials and some perennials.
This year is a battle with quack grass and bindweed and preparing new beds for next season.
Caroline

Stokes completely remodeled their site recently, and it is beautiful now. It was always very informative, but now it is more so. I find their instructions, especially for ways to get stuff started so that it's ready to put out in spring, to be some of the most helpful on the web:

http://www.stokeseeds.com/home.aspx

I have had good luck with their seeds, too, and their prices are very reasonable, IMO.

Meredith are you starting your Biennials in the house or outside I lost all of my canterbury bells I WS with this humidity it's killer this year :( I so wanted them for next years blooms! I still have my table top lights up in the kitchen LOL It's too damp this time of year in my basement to start any.

Gloria let me know how that works! I think it might be too late for my foxgloves, they are turning yellow all ready...

Lea I was thinking I'd start them in my garage because I have tried starting stuff this time of year outdoors and failed miserably! lol So I figure in the garage it stays about 75 degrees so they should think it's spring right? :)