What Have You Wintersown So Far??

I too prefer the 2 liter soda bottles. Unfortunately, we don't buy them any more either...... I will have to save what I do have for next year as well. At least that way, I should lessen the possibilities of removing a finger or a hand with the steak knife if all my holes have already have been created! ^_^

LoL I have collected 2 liters from the drinkers at work and from the families I collected milk jugs. Sometimes I would hit up the coffe shops for the milk jugs. Right now I have 2 bags of containers to cut up so I thingk I'm set for this season. Does anyone recycle their jugs?

That's what I was wondering. I recycled mine but was wondering how you can get the plants out easily without cutting the tops clean off. the two liter jug thing where you simply cut them in half or so, then cut slits to allow you to slide the tops back on would work great and allow for recycling

I generally don't use mine again for wintersowing, as the tops usually break off by the time I'm done with WS, but I do often recycle some of the bottoms for potting up divisions of shallower-rooted plants for my summer "cheap perennial sale." The rest I put in city recycling.
I have no problem collecting containers, as I probably drink close to 2 gallons of skim milk a week.

I don't think it would be very easy to remove the plants without the top totally off. I recycle mine too.

My daughter said I should go to the recycling place where they separate stuff like paper and plastic. You can fish around and take all the 2 liter bottles you want. Those could be recycled as WS pretty easily as described here. They just don't have a very big surface to plant in

I got a lot if wsing done this weekend. WooHoo I'm excited about getting more done and the possibility if more new plants.

I just finished up my seeds this morning. Not sure if I am gaining much. Our season is so short and it doesn't really warm up outside to sprout stuff til around april or may. Oh well. We'll see. At least the containers won't get tossed across the yard this year. My cold frame got dug out this weekend and they are all safe and secure inside.

Well winter finally got around to coming around here.it got cold!!,lol,but all my sprouts that sprouted early are fine and growing good.Im ready for spring,here in a few more wks I will be putting tomatos and peppers and some annuals then a cpl wks after that the tender annuals :o)

I need to go through my seeds and see what I want to WS. I usually put mine out in March.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY everyone!!!!

I wanted to share a picture where I am 'growing a dog'. lol Bobbi likes to lie in the sun, but the ground was too cold, so she gets up in the planter. lol DH made the trellis for me and spelled 'peace' that way intentionally, because our yard is so peaceful. It is our haven. In the summer I plant cypress vine in the pot and it grows onto the trellis.

that is just adorable. Great use of a planter until it is ready for 'the real thing'

Crit, love the sign and the dog! LoL I have wanted to grow a trumpet vine. I wondered if I could grow it in a pot. I heard TV can take over a garden so I was wondering if it is a heavy seeder or if it sends out the runners? does anyone have any experience with Trumpet vine? If it sends out runners, I can plant it in a pot but if it reseeds all over the place I better not plant it. I have had terrible luck with invasive vines, first with Morning Glory and then Passion vine. I can't get clematis to grwo around my lamp post but I still have MG! LoL

I planted MG around the shepherd's hook that holds my bird feeder and in about a month, I had to cut the feeder off the hook to fill it, lol.

Anita, I haven't grown trumpet vine, but know from my neighbor's yard and my brother's yard that it's very invasive. (!!!) It sends underground runners many feet away. It may also seed itself, but that I don't know.

Thanks Per

This message was edited Feb 15, 2012 2:44 PM

A question regarding drainage. I have holes in the bottom of my jugs and they are in my cold frame sitting on my deck. Since it was just dug out of the snow it has ice and snow in the bottom (a few inches). If my jugs sit on top, as more snow comes in (I folded the cold frame tops back to allow snow inside to keep the seeds moist (as much as falls through the milk jug top or the slight opening where the top meets the bottom) how will they drain until the bottoms thaw out. I guess since it should be little warmer in the frame sitting on a dark deck, the snow and ice will melt. I wonder if I should put them in some sort of grid, or into flats that have holes in them to elevate the bottoms a bit above the deck.

Oberon, maybe someone with more experience will chime in but I don't think you need to elevate your containers above the deck. Some of my containers are in a crate with holes in the bottom but most are in card board boxes. They seem to drain okay.

Are they in the snow? I assume they are outside.

Yes they are outside in the snow. I placed my boxes outside a few weeks ago to make more room inside my house. I have been wsing for a few weeks. A couple of the boxes had few inches of snow inside before I filled them with the jugs. So some of my jugs are sitting on top of snow inside the boxes. Some of the jugs have snow on top.

Well, sounds like my set up more or less so I won't worry about it. I WS poppies because I don't want to broad cast them in the garden. I preen the garden to try to keep the weeds down and that would also (obviously) prevent the poppies from germinating.

Do you have pictures of your poppies?

oberon I always do a few holes near the bottom in the side of the container, for good drainage,especially on a container with a flat bottom..

I wondered about that. Rather too late for now. I will watch them when they thaw out and if they seem to be swimming I will elevate them somehow til they drain. Diamond said she didn't have any trouble but the side holes would be good insurance.

Yes I have many pictures of my poppies. What are you interested in. I have mostly pink peony, red single and doubles, purple, lavendar, black; then some must have crossed because I ended up with some red with 'eyeliner' of black around the outer edges. I had a heck of a time trying to keep them separate to get seeds this last fall.

Wow, I would love to see the purples, blacks and red especially the one with te eyeliner. I wsed some poppy thinking it was the Oriental. Unfortunately it was the California poppy. My favorite is the Alpine. I am wsing the oriental this year and hopefully that is the what will grow.

I dug up all my orientals in the back yard last year. I am sure shoots will come up anyway. They were so floppy and unattractive most of the time. And when they were done blooming the plants looked awful. I planted a geranium there called Splish splash. Blue streaked. If yours don't grow, let me know and if I get some growth from roots that I didn't remove I will send them. I will post some pics as soon as I can find them.

Oberon, if you have some seeds from your poppies, I would love to have some. All I have is a dark red I had in a planter last year.

I'm starting to think about what I want to WS. I will put them out in March. I have some plastic storage bins that they were throwing away at work because they were cracked. Perfect for me because I get drainage out of the bins.

I never had any luck with perennial poppies, love the annuals, though. I don't have any decent pictures of my poppies from last year, they were great.

Crit, send me a dmail with your address

Well, I finally planted my lisianthus seeds. I put them in one of those flats with styrofoam trays that allow you to plant 75 little plugs. There is a large hole in the bottom of each one and you put a mat under it that wicks water from a flat underneath. Sorry my discriptive skills are lacking. Anyway, I got hold of a heating pad and have set it on there set for 75-80 which is the germination temp recommended - 10-20 days to germinate. I put two seeds in each little plus. Didn't try to note which colors when where. I would just be thrilled if they germinate. Never planted pelleted seeds before. I have them in the dining room out of direct light. Oh, there is a clear cover on top to keep in moisture.

I keep forgetting to bring my list up here to remind me what I've got out there, but here's what I think I remember I WS'd so far: (# of containers)
Red Fox Veronicas (about 20-26, something like that)
Dark Knight butterfly bush (12)
A light pink butterfly bush (don't recall the name) 12
Columbine (don't remember the variety) 1
Deep wine double Hollyhocks 1

This year, other than the Columbines and Hollyhocks, I've only sowed what I planned for in advance so there's not that many. I couldn't help myself with those 2 additions though, I dearly love Hollyhocks and have never grown Columbines and had been wanting to try it. :)
Oh, I wanted to mention also... I think I read in this thread, someone talking about their Hollyhocks and when they first bloom.... but, the first season I had my baby Holly, she bloomed wonderfully!! Let me see if I can find a picture or 2...

This message was edited Feb 18, 2012 10:22 AM

I also love hollyhock but don't seem to have much luck growing them. Maybe I will try WSing them instead of buying a plant. It may be more hardy that way

That one photo'd above was the only one I'd ever tried to grow, and she was Winter Sown, 2 winters ago when we had like 47 feet of snow. =) She's in a rather sandy/rocky full-sun location, the soil is semi-well amended with compost. I didn't have one little bit of rust on her or anything, she really seems to like it there.

I'm getting ready for WS'ing today...some goodies from the FB seed trading forum, and other trades with local gardeners...

Perennial alyssum
perennial ageratum
Some kind of allium from which my neighbor let me collect seed, lol
Adenophora
Agrostemma
Many Dianthus
Some Silenes and Lychnis
Sweet Peas
Sweet Cicely
Tons o' lettuces and greens
Pearl Bush
Yarrow

Thanks Speedy. I think I will give it another try. I would guess I overwater and rot them. And my soil is pretty peaty and rather heavy. It drains well, provided some overeager gardener doesn't flood it every time the top inch gets dry.

That is very nice Speedy
Ive got sprouts of Japanese Maple,butterfly bush,salvia turkistanica,spirea,balloon flower,yellow gallardia,lupine so far

I never thought of trying to grow a bush. I guess I thought it would take too long to see it big

I have planted seeds two weeks ago and I don't have any sign of sprouts. planted Larkspur, columbine orange cosmos, red salvia and cleomie. Is that ok or maybe I am not watering enough. Tonight it should rain and that should be enough. It has been 50-60 degr. daytime, goes down to upper 30 at night.

Oberon, I've sowed some bushes, it depends on the growth rate. Rose of Sharon blooms the first year, or def. the second, butterfly bushes bloom the second year pretty reliably.

I would love to have a Rose of Sharon but it would have to be pretty hardy. Able to withstand down to say -20, though it rarely gets that cold, but -10 to 15 isn't too unusual.

Kiseta, I would suggest you check the soil in your containers, down about 1-2 inches, and if it's dry at all, then water, but really unless it's been particularly rain-free since you sowed them then they should be ok. Also, if you're getting down into the freezing (and below) temps at night at all, that's probably why you're not seeing any sprouts yet. I sowed most of my stuff about 3 weeks ago and see no signs of life yet, but I figure maybe in another month or so, or 2, or 3. (those would be the Veronicas). The butterfly bushes et al were all done within the last week or so.
I'd forgotten, I also sowed some Pieris Dorothy Wycoff seeds as well, oh my gosh, how'd I forget that!? I sowed 7, figuring that should give me enough sucess (I hope) to cover just one side of the underneath of my deck. =)

So, butterfly bushes bloom the second year, not the first, Celene? This year is the first time I'm WS'ing them... or, growing them at all from any stage, for that matter, so I'm just trying to gear up for what to expect. Do they WS successfully, from your experience? Any problems with transplanting seedlings?


Oh, here's another shot of my Holly during her first year...