First Time WS#5 - Come on in, it's a great time to start

This is perfect for you, Jonna : it's BELGIAN!!! Go to : http://www.an-ki.com !

Thanks, Angie; there are GOOD!

Edited to fix the hyperlink


This message was edited Feb 8, 2009 5:13 PM

Thanks for the link Jim.

ge1836, I wintersowed poppies too, in December actually, and they are now happily beginning to show their little sprouty selfs in the containers out there........ I think poppies are probably one of the ones that take most easily to this method. Have fun!

Jim, lovely that you have had a harvest already!

These are orientals that I have.They dont sow the same way annual poppies do. I have winter sowed Somniverums and Island Mohns and Shirlies.
It will be May before I see them.
First sight of bare ground since December. Mighty glad to see tha snow drops.

Mine were Islandic poppies, also a perennial.

You can wintersow any perennial. Period.

Karen

Ok, I've never WS'd before and I was planning to get a few containers started today. But the weather is supposed to be in the 70's all week and windy. Should I wait till a week when temps will be cooler, or does it not matter? I guess I'm worried that they'll start sprouting too early. Thoughts?

You might want to avoid tender annuals now, like marigolds or zinnias. Perennials or hardy annuals, like poppies, will be fine.

I can't really relate to what your weather might be like, but I'm assuming it's still possible to get some frost/freezing stuff.

Karen

ge1836: I should have mentioned, if you haven't seen Trudi's site, you should familiarize yourself with it.
http://wintersown.org/

Also peruse the database for your zone. You'll find your oriental poppies there.
http://wintersown.org/wseo1/WS_Database_Z6.html

Karen

Great - thanks for the pointers Karen. I'll have to check out those links you sent. It is still definitely possible to get some freeze (definitely frost), so I'll have to be careful. I didn't get around to making up my containers today anyways, just too much on the to-do list!! Arg! Hopefully will do it this week or next weekend at the latest.

Thanks!
Jennifer

Hi! I'm new to Dave's and did some WS last year and loved it. Do I need to do anything to join this group?? Denise

Yes, Denise,

It is very complicated.

Mostly, you have to put up with all of us and our various idiosyncracies.
Then, you have to tell us what you are doing with WS this Winter (with photos, if you have them)
AND, listen to us tell everyone what we have done & whether it worked or not.

If you can do those things (Oh, and you have to at least THINK about Winter Sowing something) you are welcome into our oddball group of beginners and experienced advisors!

What did you WS last year? What worked for you? What didn't? What advice do you have for us beginners? And what are you doing this year? And what are you doing DIFFERENT this year because you learned something from last year?

See, I TOLD you it was complicated! We want to "pick your brains"!

Ha, Jim, that is quite a welcome!

Hello Denise, hop on in. I am wintersowing for the very first time this year. I have done 28 containers so far, I have about 100 left to go, and * gasp* I just bought more seeds last night.

I was suckered in, it's true. Last fall I saw the prettiest Primula Candelabra growing at the local zoo. Only then, I didn't know what it was. So I was browsing through Value Seeds and they had some! So, I can't just order 1 pack of seeds, it wouldn't be worth the shipping, so I picked out a few -ok 10- more packs of seeds. OH my! When is it going to stop!

ACTUALLY I have a picture, and what I had in my mind as Primula Candelabra, since I have been wanting those for a while, might not be the same thing!

Does anyone know what this is?

Hi, Denise, and welcome to Dave's and the wintersowing forum. Glad to have another among us who loves to wintersow.

Karen

Great--just what I'm looking for to rescue me from the winter doldrums!!

Two years ago we were finally able to buy a house--and it had a smallish but decent sized yard--with nothing but a few (nice) bushes in it! I was so psyched. And then I looked at the prices of al the MANY plants I wanted. Yikes! I dug lots of holes and found people who had perennials to share, which was great. But I have this vision of doing away with most of the grass and having so many flowers that I can have some inside and outside for as many months as I can swing it!

Then my mom died, after a very long illness, and winter struck... a bad combo. Then I, too, found Value seeds! Absolutely can not just get one kind of seed! But it was only November. I bought more seeds here and there. I didn't really have a plan--I'd tried early seeding inside, but it wasn't too successful.

THEN I found wintersown.org--I don't even remember how, just surfing I guess--and figured it couldn't hurt to try it. It was very healing to me and made the months go by. And the bonus was: it worked!!!

I kept a diary of sorts--so I'll pull it out and give you a better idea of what I tried. It was almost too easy, like beginners luck or something, so now I wonder if I could be so lucky again. But it was so satisfying to have all these baby plants to play with and to slowly see my garden change into this special place.

I'm going to try primula candelabra too! I don't know what is in your pix, but I think the primrose it a bit different. I actually am crazy enough to print out al the value seed pages and cut out the pix of the ones I've ordered so I can play with them... so I'm sure there is a pix of the primrose there! (the picture you have there is very nice tho!)

dlw.... welcome to Daves and to the WS forum!!

Denise: It wasn't beginners luck. It simply works. I'm sure it will be just as successful for you this year.

I started wintersowing in 2006, and I sowed 80 containers of seeds that year. I remember my excitement that March day when I found my first sprouts- poppies and achillea. I was so excited to see that it actually would work. Now, ater 3 years, it I assume success. If a few containers don't germinate I don't even care. I know I'll have more plants than I have space.

Karen

Lissa, I believe that is Leonotis leonurus in your photo. I grow Leonotis menthifolia which has the flowers that look the same, but wider leaves. I have plenty of seed, dmail me if you'd like some.
Neal

Thanks Neal, I will d-mail you!

Now that is interesting, the one here in the photo was maybe 3 feet tall in October, but PF on Leonotis leonurus says it can grow to 5-6 feet? I don't mind big plants, I have a huge yard, I just wonder if it only grows that tall in the areas where it perennializes. It looks like it would be more of an annual here, I doubt it would come back reliably. Does yours come back every year?

Hi Denise! Welcome to DG and welcome back to Winter Sowing (WSing)!

jenepat - I decided to just go for it this past weekend. I have dahlias, blood flower and shasta daisies in jugs so far. I did put them on the North side of the house in the shade, and I put some extra landscaping timbers around them to keep them from blowing away in this crazy wind! After last night, nothing has shifted and nothing has germinated. This is me crossing my fingers that things stay that way for a while! Let us know what you decide-

-GB

I started w/s in '06 as well. It's basic premis is to 'sow it and forget it.'

Lissa, last year was my first time growing L.menthifolia and I'm pretty sure its just an annual here. I was late starting the seeds, so it was August before I got blooms, but they reached 6' by the time frost came. L.leonurus looks almost shrubby in some of the pics, I wonder if it gradually grows taller each year.

Denise, I just remembered something I wanted to tell you about last night.

I'm like you - I like to look through pictures of my potential flowers on gray days and try to imagine what they are going to look like in the garden. DG has a tool that lets me do that without using any paper at all!

You can look up your plants in Plantfiles http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/search.php and click on the correct cultivar. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the "trading tools" box and click on "Click here to add this plant to your have list." You'll go through a quick prompt where you can add info (I usually add where I got the seed and when I plan to WS it) and then click on "add this plant."

Once on your tradelist, this plant will be viewable to any DG member and will appear "tradeable." If you are viewing your tradelist, in the far right box will be an option to "disable" making that plant invisible to other DGers but still visible to you. If you enter all your plants, you will have a list with pictures of everything that will (hopefully!) end up in your garden so you can scroll through them until you can stroll through them.

-GB

GB - glad to know another "local" is starting as late as me. I still haven't gotten around to it yet, and ran out of soil mix this weekend, so I need to buy some more this week. This wind has been crazy though! I heard there is going to be tornado-strength winds tonight. I hope your containers stay put!!!

I've only sown 7 jugs. I just can't seem to get moving on it this year. In truth, I don't think I have much space left in my beds, though. I do hope to sow a few jugs today.

Karen

Thanks GB! I'll give it a try. DG has so many options sometimes I don't know where to start!

I wanted to tell you all about the WS containers I use. I mentioned it on a different thread, but that was on seed swapping and I don't know what the overlap is in membership.

Anyway--I am totally addicted to mocha frappiccinos--these great chocolate flavored coffee drinks. I've had to limit myself to one a day... but that adds up to plenty of cups over a weeks time! They come with a dome top for whipped cream (which I don't need but still get). So I cut a few holes in the bottom of the cup, put in the soil, moisten, add a few seeds, and put the top on--which already has the ventilation hole! The top snaps on so no tape is needed. SO easy! Then I mark the cup with a permanent marker with name and date.

I'm sure you all have gone to wintersown.org and received a few free seeds as I have. So I'm WSing them. I'm also trying a few of the seeds left from last year. I don't know if they are too old tho. I tired saving seed from some of my plants last year and I'll WS them too--but I have no confidence that I collected them correctly...

Even so, it's great fun! We're having a thaw here--which is just a tease. 3 months, and many mocha fraps, to go!

I found this site. Another possibility for those who can afford to buy containers. At the end of the season you can wash them and reuse the next year. I'm looking into it as I will be running out of gallon containers before the season is up.



oops..forgot the link... http://www.plasticcontainercity.com/Deli_Container.htm

This message was edited Feb 11, 2009 8:11 AM

Whew! After some tornado force winds last night, I am pleased to report that my milk jugs are still in place. I guess being sheltered up next to the house and having 2' landscaping timbers on either side of the row was enough after all. Now that I don't have an excuse to wait to sow more, I am off to play with seeds!

-GB

Glad your containers survived the winds GB. Heard there was alot up in that area. We had pretty high winds and hard rain, too. Glad to get the rain for sure. My containers all "stayed put", too.

Anita -- i save all those types of containers from the deli ... i have quite a stash of the 1# and 2# containers. The 2# work great. I used them for my columbine last year.

I have green, I have green showing in all of my containers! I'm so excited. I planted the first round on Jan. 16 and after a hard freeze, everything is starting to coming up (even the poppies the puppy knocked over) ... I'm going to start my next round this weekend. So, begonias, english daisies, poppies, astilbe, columbine, coxcombs, liatris, penstemon, rudebeckia and sunflowers have done well.

Now, where am I going to put all of these plants??? LOL... Peg

You have green. Does that mean that you have to bring everything in during the next cold snap?

Kathy I wouldn't think so unless it's a very hard freeze. But this is my first time WS, so I'll listen to anyone that has experience with this. I used old styrofoam coolers cut in half for my containers, so they should be insulated against a freeze some. Hauling 14 containers in and out was not my idea of how this would work. Hmmm... need some advice here....

Yeah, we had a week of freaky 60 and 70 degree temps and I expect some green also. It will be cold again. I checked the calendar again and it is still February.

Hardy perennials and hardy annuals should be fine in frost. Just give any tender annuals protection, like a blaket over them. Don't bring into a heated house.

Karen

But I am not done using my blanket for me. Remember it is still february. lol

Oh, Kathy! Share that blanket, dear... I know we are likely to get more freezes but it is just so nice to see new green stuff that I've got spring fever bad.

If I gotta, I will. Guess I will stick an extra log in the stove.

Cold I can handle. Our tornado sirens are blaring again.

Karen

keep a watchful eye and ear. Be careful.