What have you wintersowed so far????

Thanks for the info y'all. I'll see what I can find today.

Nutsfor...- Come on down! We have 80 acres, I'm sure we can find a spot for you. I do live in paradise! I thank god every day I am here!
I too have been to North Pole AK on my way to Denali. AK is breath taking! I think I could tolerate the winters, I suspect it's like tolerating the summers in Tucson, it's the darkness I would have trouble with. Even here I get a little 'seasonal effective disorder' in March of all times!
I have DS some OP's and WS them this year. I too went to Lowes and bought salad making seeds to WS today. I picked up seed starter "organic seed starter mix" by Ferry-Morse.

The view from my bedroom window this summer

Beautiful Sonoita!! you must be farther north... i'll have to look up where you are.

OH heck no.... when i was looking you up, i noticed names i was familiar with.... My mom is in Green Valley.

didnt realize there were all those trees in southern AZ.

you've got a great piece of land. how awesome.

Ah to have such a view. *sigh*

I am in a stretch of mountains along the boarder of Mexico, as you can see it looks like northern California. We have numerous vineyards here.
I used to have Physical THerapy practise in Green Valley, now I am a mom & rancher.
Here is a pic out the front door after a late March snow.

Beautiful pics of your place, Sonoita. Just lovely! I see you are near Bisby and Tombstone. I loved that area, and had dreams of living in Bisby. I thought it was a really cool town. I visited some beautiful caverns while I was there, though I can't recall the name of them now. If I ever get in that area again I will pop in for a visit.

Chocolatemoose, my Alaskan sister goes to Mexico every year, too. Too funny!

Well, I may have to pick up some of that Jungle Growth Pro Mix from Lowe's. I think this weekend I will be ordering seeds and purchasing my plastic storage containers and drilling the holes in them. Gotta get something done soon.

Karen

I got a bag of something called Sta-Green vegetable and flower planting mix from Lowes.
Do you think that will be ok for wintersowing?

I have just had my first germination from wintersowing this year. I sowed a number of varieties of poppies and some gold dust allysum ( a perenial) on December 22nd. MY wife and I came in from walking dog and I stopped to check out my sowing. I had to scrape a little ice from the container to look in the allysum container. The seeds have germinated and the stems are lifting the pods from the soil, but they are not yet showing any green.

It takes all my will power not to bring them in and put them under the lights in the basement.

It was 22 degrees here last night. How can these babies stand it ?????

It doesn't seem right that those seeds are germinating so soon. Wouldn't your area expect to have a number of hard freezes between now & spring?

I sure am pleased to find out I can winter sow perennial allysum! I have seeds for that! Gee - I hope your little guys hang in there, Time.

Me too. I am really torn about which way to go with them, My lights in the basement will be so full before I can start moving things out into my little cold frame..... and I have more seeds coming..

The point of winter sowing is the seeds being outside in hard freezes. Think about the flowers that grow from seed that are already in your yard.....you dont do anything but wait for spring. We are trying to create germination as mother nature would. Also it is a theory that it makes seeds hardier.

This is my first year doing the winter sowing but I recommend reading the stickies at the top of the page............lots of links with pictures of seeds out in the snow and ice and then come spring they are healthy and strong.

Henrygirl I am with you on the intellect of this ....but they are still babies.

I sound 'stronger' than I am...I must admit to peeking outside during the cold last nite and wanting to bring them in so bad. :) I truly think this is gonna work out from others testimonies but it is hard to not want to snatch them inside during frigid weather.

Hardy annuals and hardy perennials should be fine. I don't recall ever losing these to weather in three years of wintersowing. Now, I don't give a second thought to perennials or hardy annuals that might sprout in February or March. Only tender annuals are a problem, and some of these even will take some frost. I just wait until close to spring to sow the tenders to avoid the issue. If the tenders sprout and cold weather returns, I just cover the jugs for the night with a sheet. This has worked well for me. I don't remember ever losing seedlings to frost since in my first year, 2006, and that was with tender annuals with no covering or protection.

Karen

here's to you Karen

Today I WS'd the following:

Campanula cup and saucer
Campanula carpatica
Caryopteris `Blue Mist'
Dianthus (annual)

Ah, I love campanulas!

Today I WS-ed:

White Russian Kale
Fantasia Sunflower mix
May Queen butter lettuce
Zinnia Lilliput
Cosmos Sensation
Baby's Breath
Purity White Cosmos

that last -- actually that plus the zinnias plus the other cosmos and some other stuff, I got from Johnny's Cheap Seeds -- really good deals. But the white cosmos does not look like a cosmos seed. I know this may be an issue of common name versus Latin binomial for accuracy. Unfortunately the Cheap Seeds envies do not have the Latin binomial on there. I decided to WS these even though I also had put some in my seed balls with the red clover (which I also sowed today) because I really want to see what the heck they are!

Course, I could contact the folks too..... not an issue, just a curiosity.

Anyway, a productive day for moi. ;-)

Kayla -- can you photograph the seeds in question....

I have a few Cosmos seeds that differ just a bit... I have found the "sensation mix" is smaller than the Orange cosmos i have.

Hey. No, I don't have a camera here. These seeds are tiny round black seeds. They look much like poppy seeds, whereas the cosmos seeds I am used to, and those in the other packet, are actually more like long boat shapes with pointy ends...... Hmm. I bet they are poppy seeds of some kind and just got mis-labeled. Well, if they germinate I shall find out! I love both flowers, cosmos and poppies, so I am actually kind of enjoying the suspense factor here.

K.

I, too had a productive WS day. Here is what I planted:
Agastache rupestris
Agastache cana
Columbine NOID (Mom brought seeds back from Colorado)
Wine Cups
Blue Pea Vine
Rocker Larkspur
Geranium 'Bill Wallis'
a yellow hibiscus
pink Rose of Sharon
Lavendar/red eye Rose of Sharon
Basket Sweet Peas
Container Sweet Peas
Formosa Lily
Gulf Winds Allysum
Chilean Jasmine
Pestemon hartwegii
Scabiosa
Frostweed
Ironwed
Malva moschata

Still have a lot more that I want to do. Maybe some next weekend!

Tonya

K.

no matter how well i mark my seeds... i always end up with some NoIDs.

so many seeds can look a like, but you are right... Cosmos are distinct... and certainly are not "poppy-like"

Terese

Tonya: I'm like you. I've got one more good WSing weekend and I'm through until later in the spring when I can start veggies! What I sowed today makes 26 jugs of WS'd plants, so I can't wait for warm weather to see what sprouts!

Angie

Terese, I think that must be what happened!

Angie, I decided to go ahead and risk the veggies -- well, not tomatoes yet but I don't have most of what I intend to sow yet, so that will wait til I do..... Today I marked the calendar according to the moon signs etc when I feel it best to plant each month coming up, so I will be prepared.

Tonya, great list there! I am in that funny place of trying not to overplant for my space. I promised myself I would be careful! And yet, here I am with the seed catalogs and drooling over all the sunflower varieties, and decided to order two more kinds..... sheesh.

Well, come spring this will be a good way to make friends, maybe, giving away plants.

Kyla

Kyla: I'll probably sow some lettuce, arugula, onions and peas outdoors in February and get some tomatoes started inside. We were at Lowe's tonight and I was over by the seed displays, ogling all the perennials, veggies and herbs! Probably should have gone ahead and bought some more plant tags to put inside my jugs, but I think I'm still good to go. Definitely have to have more later, though.

Now I hear on the weather forecast that we may get our coldest blast of weather next week, so I'm glad as far along as I am now ^_^

YEAH... we are supposed to be really cold next week too. got almost a foot of snow today.... at least good insulation for the SW containers.

Angie, I guess I forgot to consider onions a vegetable! I WS-ed onion seeds back in December. But I understand they really take a l o o o o o n g time, so that was why.....

Weather wise we are still in a warm cycle, days up to near or just over 50! But nights freeze, and shaded areas remain frozen. So I think my babies are safe from premature sprouting.

I pretty much completed my "planning", so-called, today. I ordered seeds for two kinds of dill, some chamomile, culinary sage, two kinds of tomato, a particular wildflower mix that is designed for this climate and area, thyme,, and those two other kinds of sunflower. As I was doing this I realized I intend to WS all of them. I am sold on this method. Even though I've never done it before. But I will have seeds held back for most things as insurance too.

I got started today............Aconitum - blue bishop, Blue Flax, Northern Sea Oats, Blackberry Lily's, Great Blue Lobelia, Baptisia, Butterfly Weed, Verbascum. I have some outside, and I have some inside my unheated greenhouse..........I am wondering which ones will do better......

Lisa

I've the starts of Heliotrope, 3 varieties of coleus and Inula orientalis in real small seedling form now. I just couldn't wait for spring and winter sow so I started them on heating mats just this past Monday.(the 5th) and they have germinated. In fact this morning is when I found the first green of this horrid horrid snowy winter. Will certainly help the moods.......

Kyla: Maybe I better get those onions in soon, then. Didn't know they took so long.

Lisa: I like your list. Would love to have some aconite. Have to see about that.

Looks like we're all off to a great start! I've got a total of 26 jugs sown now. Yee-haa!

You guys really make me feel like a slouch. I haven't started yet. I can't do too much this year as I don't have much planting space left in my beds. I'm planning just a few perennials this winter, focusing more on annuals. The bulk of my sowing will be done closer to spring.

It's cold today, 28 degrees. My plan is to put a pot of soup on the stove, maybe dig through my seeds and choose a few perennials, and hopefully sow a few jugs. First will be a jug of Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia. Must finish by 4:00 to watch the football game- Go Steelers!

Karen

Karen: That Cherry Brandy is gorgeous! Saw a pic of it in Bluestone's catalog and fell in love with it. It's on my wish list from them.

Unfortunately, I have to work today, so not much will be done between church, work and what needs to be done here. I might be able to get a couple of jugs sown. Hmmmm.

Hemophobic: T&M carries seeds for the Cherry Brandy. Any other ruds I have wintersown have done extremely well in both germinating and garden performance. It's the one I most want to try this year. And although T&M lists it as an annual, all my other R. Hirtas have lasted at least a couple of years. Since Cherry Brandy is a Hirta hybrid I'm hopeful that it will last more than one year, too.

Karen

R. hirta is an annual but reseeds so prolifically that one doesn't even know. I planted just one plant of several different ones in 2004 and have dug up many and put them else where ever since. I've the Cherry Brandy seeds this year and will sow those soon. My winter-sowing got put on hold this year due to holidays illnesses and various other problems not within my power

cececoogan: Mine definitely last a couple of years, the same plant, not volunteers. They're mostly still green now, but much of the foliage uppermost leaves are wilted from freezing. The lower leaves usually are somewhat protected by the upper ones and some leaf mulch applied in fall. The new spring growth is definitely from the old plant, not reseeders. The returning leaves are much bigger much faster and they bloom weeks before new starts. They also spread a whole lot more than first year starts. They're way more spectacular in their second year, but I've not had time yet to see if any make it to year 3.

Many sources say that R. Hirta is a biennial or short-lived perennial and for me that's true.
http://www.floridata.com/ref/R/rudb_hir.cfm

Last year I was given a division of Goldsturm (R. Fulgida) which is supposed to be more reliably perennial. I hope that's true.

Karen

Goldstrum get huge fast I love mine and they flower from early June to frost. I've a few of them also and are planted with my Shasta Daisy 'Alaska' very wonderful show the two put together.

Karen and Cece: Thanks for the heads up. I'm going on some seed sites later today (after I work) and check out prices for seeds of those on that loooooong list for Bluestone. I just can't afford all that I'm salivating over!

Angie

Bobyrd, since it doesn't look like anyone has answered your question yet. I will jump in here. I would think that Sta-Green vegetable and flower planting mix from Lowes would be fine for winter sowing if it's a seed starting mix. I'm no expert on WS, though, so anyone else here who could has had experience please feel free to jump in on that one.

Karen, I have Rudbeckia hirta 'Goldsturm', and it is reliably hardy perennial. A very nice one to have. I also had Rudbekia nitida 'Herbstonne' (Autumn Sun). It gets up to 8' tall and is spectacular, but it does need staking. I has green, conical centers. Here is a picture of mine.

Karen

Nutsfor: Lovely rudbeckia. That height would look great behind some things I have in mind for this spring.

This message was edited Jan 11, 2009 3:05 PM