What did you sow that you are concerned about?

You are in zone five and it would be rare for you that before late winter you would have any prolonged warm spell that would foster germination of anything other than hardy varieties.

Trudi,

I winter sowed bachelor buttons, larkspur, hollyhock, columbine, white marigolds, poppies, Tennessee Purple Coneflower, Feverfew, Liatris, Scabiosa.

So what if, for example, in March we have a warm week and then back to frost?

Thanks,
laagarden

All of those except the white marigolds should be fine. And even they ought to be okay as long as you keep the frost off them. They reseed here.

Scabiosa and hollyhocks were some of my first to germinate last winter.

Like token said minus the marigolds (I usually wait until March for those) everything sounds good!

MOve the marigolds into complete shade until late March. They'll be fine and not sprout until you bring them back out into sunlight.

laagarden, I am also in zone 5. I broke down everything on wintersowen.org into months for myself. I emailed you my spreadsheets. Hope that helps.

All my jugs go out on the north side of my house so there is seldom a problem even with margolds or zenias which are the two most finicky in the flower line up does not include tender veg's. though. jim

conniesc,
I have sent you an e mail.
cAROL

Carol, I did not get one. Would u like a copy as well? I seem to be getting a lot of request for it. :) Hope it helps everyone. I found it helpful as a guide on where to start.

connie I would love one of the spread sheets!! PLEASE!!!!!
Pming you!

Thank you Connie, i received the spread sheet.
Many thanks,:0)
cAROL

Connie,
I also would appreciate it if you could send me your spreadsheets!

Connie,
I also would appreciate it if you could send me your spreadsheets too! I had thought about doing that, but never got around to it.
Thanks
Connie jw

I can absolutley send the copy I prepared to anyone interested. It helped me figure out where to start since this is my first year as well. All I ask is that you email me so I can keep track of who I have responded to. thanks

Connie, new this year too, can I have a copy.

Thanks
Sweetlady

I am up to date on everyone that sent me an email. Boy, I hope everyone is finding this helpful :)

Connie, I'd love a copy also! Hope it's not too much bother.

Laagarden,
My experience with poppies -
last year I sowed them around Dec. and they germinated very quickly.
[I had them in the sun]
Then I had to baby them until I could put them in the ground. About 2 months.
I had to cover them when it rained too much, shelter them if the temp dropped to the teens.

Maybe I am over-protective, but this year I am waiting to March to sow any annuals, which with me, they germinate in a couple of weeks.

I had thot they would wait til the time was right, but they didn't. It was a lot of work and worry which I don't want to repeat.

ellen

Connie, How did you go about making your chart? I would love to do one for here in zone7... it gets so confusing to me, not knowing all the 'technical' names for every plant, to know what to sow when....so I expect I will get really discouraged and never try again if nothing works, lol.... I have printed all the info on wintersown.org but aside from constantly flipping between charts and looking up every common name online to match to the botanical names....then I get bored with all the comparison work and I just sow, lol.....any idea what you did, how you did it.....would be wonderful........thanks

Connie,

I too would like a copy of your spreadsheet. It would be greatly appreciated.

Melanie

heartzlink , I did nothing special at all. All of the info I am using to start out with is all on wintersow.org+ what others have so generously shared with me on their own experiences. I just took all the info and broke it into a seperate excel sheet for each month.

For zone 7, here is the link.
For zone 5 I copied all of this, deleted anything that did not germinate, ordered it but month sowed, seperated it into excel sheets on germination start month. No creativity here. Just cut and paste :)

This is my first year wintersowing and I was feeling the newbie nerves. This just helped me feel confident on where to start.

http://wintersown.org/wseo1/WS_Database_Z7.html

I hope that helps.

For anyone else in Zone 5. It was a bit of work so I would be more than happy to just send you a copy if you want it. I hope by next year- I will have an expanded detailed sheet.

Connie,
Thank you for all the hard work you have put into this for all of us,it has helped me greatly already,every one here has always been so giving with their information,and ways to help make WSing easier, not that it is hard, but some(me!!!)have a harder time understanding when to sow what.:0)
This is a BIG help.
cAROL

That is great to hear Carol. It honestly makes me feel better that others were/are in the same boat as me. We will all have to compare notes this spring on our sucesses and failures. I am so enjoying wintersowing. I am having a blast. I know I will be peeking in those containers all the time once spring gets here.

Carol,
Could you please send me a copy of your spreadsheet?

Thanks, in advance
Gail (gail14054@yahoo.com)