I am new on seed starting

I have recived all kind of seeds Flower I live in IL close to Wis. I am in zone 5a I think I wood like to know when I should start the seeds in the house is it to early I have a few containers with domes and grow lit But there is still what maybe 45 day till spring and I really don't like to plant until Mothers day what do you think I should start
Dimmer(AKA) Kim

I'm guessing Mother's Day is the right time to start seeds outdoors, since that's probably about your last frost date. So if you want to start things indoors, you can definitely start earlier than that. I think a general rule of thumb would be to start them about 6 wks before your last frost date. But you can start them less than 6 wks before if you want to, the plants will just take a little longer before they bloom (but they'd still be ahead of ones you planted outdoors on Mother's Day). Or if you've got plenty of places to keep bigger plants under lights until it's time to plant them out, then you can start more than 6 wks before. Or some of your seeds might work for wintersowing--I don't start things that way so I don't know what the right time is to get that going, but I would think now would still work.

Thanks I'm pretty sure that you have given me other advice on things so thank you very much You do have good advice
Dimmer(AKA) Kim

There are a couple of threads in Annuals that you can check for those plants that need a bit more of a head start. I am in Zone 4, so I start mine a couple of weeks later than is listed in the thread.

You can also check the backs of your seed packets to see how many weeks prior to last frost date and count backwards.

Dimmer, I would check first to get your last frost date. If you know which plants you want to start, check the seed packet - most of them give a time to begin planting inside. Some flowers like geraniums, and vinca can be started much earlier - ten, even twelve weeks before the last frost date. Others only require a few weeks. I normally sit down with my calender, and figure out what I will be starting each week.

This year's calender has a couple of seeds that need to be started each week. The busy time is usually four to eight weeks before the last frost date.

Heres a link for the frost date:
http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/

Thanks for that Link that is a very good site I realy liked it alot
Thanks again
Kim