What have you wintersowed so far #5

mine got another good soaking....not that they needed it either. hopefully they'll get a coupla days to dry out.
I gave my neighbor 2 lil pots yesterday -- i just put them out by her bed... boy i hope they didnt blow away... i havent had time to check yet. I gave her some 8th Wonder Poppies and a Lavaterna [sp?] Silver Cup.

I am going to do some zinnias today and I did some Yvonnes Salvia yesterday...a bit late so I don't know if it will germinate or not. I didn't use all my seeds. Will save some for next year just in case.

Between the Pill/sow bugs, and my peafowl my WS plant survival is scarce :( The peafowl will be penned next year so I can look forward to a better success rate next year.

Although its late, I'm still finding using the jugs I get faster germination than in other containers. I sowed 23 varieties of tomatoes a little over a week ago, and the 5 or 6 in jugs germinated about 3-4 days before any of the others.

Hi everyone!
I am have some success. Seems slow compared to all of you. What is kinda frustrating is that some of the WS plants I have that are sprouted, stores and greenhouses around here are selling already blooming. The good news is that mine didn't cost me hardly anything. I just hope they will grow enough before fall and the first snow!
I do have delphinium, tickseed, foxglove, mexican hat, and calendula sprouting! They are so cute and I'm very protective! It is going to freeze tonite and may snow again! I guess I just need a little encouragement! Dont mean to whine, just want to get my hands in the soil!!!!

Shirb, I had the same disappointment about the stores offering the same plants much more mature than my WS plants, and I was reminded by a DG member that WS is an early start to seedlings, but no competition for the commercial nurseries and just don't fool yourself to try to compare. Enjoy our home success, and cost savings.

Thanks Sonoita- Yeah your are right, if you add up all the little plants and what they would cost if you were to buy them mature, you would probably spend 3 times the amount! I think next year though I might try to buy a box of those containers that the rotesserie chickens come in. They are perfect for this project. The lids are clear and already vented. Just put holes in the bottom, then I added a coffee filter to the bottom to the keep soil in. I put my cherry brandy rudbekia in it and they are sprouted and doing good.
Thanks again for the encouragement!

Shirb, I know that self sown plants are not so mature as in the stores. But I found out the plants I growed myself, were much stronger and lived longer than the ones I used to buy. Those ones are grown inside under perfect conditions, but are not used to wind, rain and other bad weather. Ours are, so they will grow very well under all circumstances.
About setting seeds: only the 'tropical' annuals won't have time enough to set seed, but most of the others will do.

Shirb, I think they do that on purpose- lure people into buying colorful plants and setting them out too early, only to get frozen and then you've got to buy more. Your babies will be ready at just the right time. I have noticed that purchased bedding plants typically take longer to settle in and start growing than wintersown plants. They often start out smaller, but grow faster and surpass purchased plants. I think part of it is their roots get direct contact with the garden soil immediately, whereas nursery plants have to grow roots beyond their cushy little ball of potting medium.

Hey Jonna and gemini_sage, thanks for the advice. Im sure that our plants will be more hardy as mine have to go through a day or so of 60 degree weather and now we have a cold front coming through and we are supposed to get down to 32 tomorrow night. Should I bring those little sprouts in? I sure dont want anything to happen to them! Let me know.........

If the covers are still on the containers they should be just fine. Mine never get brought in, once I covered them with moving blankets (a couple of years ago when we had a week of temps in the 20s in late April), but thats the only time I've given them extra protection.

I had frost several times after sprouts came, but they all survived.

Boy, you both sure get up early! Thanks, I will just leave mine alone then.

So many things germinating that I can't keep track. My WSing is doing much better than my indoor seedlings. I am so grateful to all of you for your guidance and you enthusiasm.

Now if the weather would just cooperate I could get some of my plants in the ground.
Lots of below normal temps and had frost a few nights ago.

Thanks to all you wonderful people.

I have many plants that I will call - My Kentucky Kindness Collection. Thanks Neal!^_^.

Happy germinating all!

Hugs Elaine and Otis

See, Elaine? You just had to have time to see it work! I'm sold on wintersowing myself. I love it, love it.

Angie

Well I hate to say it, but I'm very disappointed with my wintersowing. The only things that are growing are the plants that I had good success with indoors - candy lily, blackberry lily, asclepias tuberosa, dwarf delphinium. Even the digitalis (successful indoors) I have only a few sprouts on the wintersown ones. None of the gaillardia (several kinds sown), gentiana, pulsatilla, blue-eyed grass, tricyrtis, columbine, etc. have shown any signs of life.

Columbine takes a while. I think I have 2 seedlings of Aquilegia canadensis so far, but otherwise that has been tough for me too (a lot more luck with it last year, though). My gentiana have sprouted, but the cotyledons are extremely tiny. Gentiana needs light to germinate, so they shouldn't have any soil covering them. Don't know if that's part of the issue or not.

Jsorens, it could be that, even though I planted the gentians on top of the soil, rain or snow may have pushed them beneath. I'll try to remember to keep watering, because if yous have only just come up, there may still be hope. Same with the others, but if the gaillardia was going to show, I'd think at least that would be up by now. I do have 2 seedlings of one variety. Also forgot to mention the echinacea. I have one single sprout in one of 2 containers.
Maybe it's necessary to scatter seed as if making chia pets in wintersowing. I spaced out all my seeds and only planted 12 to 15 in each gallon milk jug. Maybe that wasn't enough?

I was surprised by my echinacea as well. I think collected seed has spotty germination. I sowed most containers very thick and I got 2 spouts of the purpurea and two of the paradoxia. I was hoping for a few more than that but I do have some more seed I may just throw them out around the seedlings I did get and see if I can get a few more.

I had pretty good rate on my echinacea.... over 50% of the seeds germinated. I"m going to share them all, since i got so many plants.

That IS good, tcs. Where did your seed come from, and what varieties did you plant?

the White Swan were all my seeds... from plants in my yard.
all the others came from other people. I can check my spreadsheet for exactly WHO i got them from.

The Tennesseee ones came from a guy on GW.... but i got a lot of those fi anyone else wanted any.

So none were commercial seed then? Was just wondering if some of the hybrids might be finicky about reproducing. The few I've grown as plants seem to be a lot less robust than the original pink ones. My white ones disappeared and another - summer something - are puny compared to the pink ones which flourish and multiply rapidly.

this will be my first year with many of these coneflowers. I have a lot of the 'rapidly multiplying' pink ones. purpurea??

I know [off the top of my head] i had a lot of Merlot germinate... we shall see what summer brings.. if anything blooms or if they are all second year bloomers.

My Merlot, Green Envy, White Swan and Twilight are all looking healthy. I, too am anxious to see if they are first year bloomers and if the Green Envy and Twilight come true.

Therese, is this the Tenessee coneflower that you have seeds for?
http://www.wildflowerfarm.com/index.php?p=product&id=124&parent=31

If so, I'd love a few of those seeds. I can send an SASE, if you'd like.

Tonya

Tonya... yes, that is the name of the seed. i havent seen it bloom yet. but when i did research it, it said it was "rare" -- also from what i've read is.... it like rocky soil. in my readings, many folks had troubles with it coming back -- soil issues.

If you wanted to pop me a sase, i'll send you seeds. Off hand i dont know what i have -- since i'm not home.. but i know the guy sent me A LOT of seeds. I'm in teh exchange.

tcs, yes I meant the purpurea. It's very happy in my yard, so you'd think the others would be too. But I can say the same for coreopsis. The new hybrids die out for me, so I've pretty much given up on them, but the old stuff I have to keep ripping out or it'll take over. It seems a lot of these fancy new hybrids are just wimps - may look pretty for a brief time, but have genetic defects or something.

perennialllyme... the reason i had the ?? was because i was not sure i spelled it right. i assumed those were what you were referring to.... even though there is purple in the name, I too see them as pink . wouldnt real purple be awesome.

Thanks Terese, I'll send that SASE pretty soon. My oldest daughter is getting married ont he 23rd so things are a bit hectic, but I'm sure I can send it before then. If not, you'll know why!

Tonya

I've had pretty low germination rates with Echinacea purpurea this year, but I think the reason was that many of the seeds were still sitting on the surface recently. I sprinkled some coarse sand on top, and since then germination has improved. Those are big seeds, so I guess they need a bit more cover than most.

Here's my Myosotis which was WS'd this year:

Clarkia `Confetti':

This wasn't WS'd, but I did start it very early in March in pots and here it is blooming. Decorative Dahlia:

perenniallyme, all the seeds that didn't germinate until now, are late to germinate. I also WS these seeds and most of them sprouted here a few days ago. So don't give up!

Thanks, Jonna. That's good to know! Think I'll go out and check them now.

I've been out of state for almost 2 weeks, so came back wondering what would be left out of my jugs..surprise! I have 43 out of 61 that germinated. Many of them I had to open the jug cause they are CROWDED in there..got the bed ready and hopefully will plant most of them tomorrow after work.
Here's what I have:

1. Purple Coneflower
2. Mexican Hats
3. Blanket Flower
4. Dwarf sunflower "teddy bear"
5. Hollyhock
6. Marigolds (my seed from last year)
7. Mammoth Sunflower
8. Oleander
9. Cypress vine (red and white)
10. Love-Lies-Bleeding
11. Sweet Alyssum
12. Dinnerplate Zinnia
13. Moonflower
14. Four O'clocks
15. Trumpet Vine
16 and 17- 2 jugs of Lazlo Mystery Mix :)
18. Threadleaf Coreopsis
19. Batchelor Button
20. Tx Bluebonnet
21. False Sunflower
22. Delphinium "Magic Fountain"
23. Cosmos "Bright Lights"
24. Butterfly Weed
25. Globe Amaranth (purple)
26. Globe Amaranth "Strawberry Fields"
27. Gayfeather
28. Lupines "Gallery Blue" and "Russell's Hybrid Mix"
29. Bellflower "White Clips"
30. Delphinium "Blue Butterfly"
31. Forget Me Nots
32. Treasure Flower
33. Big Blue Stem
34. summer Snapdragon
35. Salvia "Blue Bedder"
36. Blackberry Lily
37. Hardy Hibiscus "Red Star"
38. Western Coneflower "Green Wizard"
39. Snapdragon
40. Yarrow
41. Poppy (California and Oriental)
42. Hyacinth Bean
43. Brown Eyed Susans

My first time of WSing and I'm very happy with it. I basically threw seeds in a jug and let it go. *I did make a mistake of letting some of them get too cold and lost 5 jugs that never did come back. The ones that haven't come up yet, I've moved back into the sun to see if that will bring on the germination. Otherwise, it's no loss since I've got such a great variety!

CC: That's an impressive list! I had no luck with delphs at all. Some of my seeds were old so no loss, just disappointment. I'll try them again this winter. My Forget-Me-Nots did beautifully. Here's a photo as they start to bloom:

What an impressive list. I may give up too soon on a lot of ws; I only get about 50% germination in the number of jugs.

I really believe that mine did so well because I moved them out of the hot direct sun and put them in a partially shaded area when the weather was warming up, so they didn't get the late day sun that is so hot here in OK.

thanks :)

I did my sunflowers last week...and they sprouted over the weekend! I did them I did them in 3'' pots and put them in gallon baggies.