Beautiful pictures, Lynda. And I'm glad the VB worked out for you. But you can't say I didn't warn you about the volunteers. I'm still trying to eradicate the damned things, 5 years now. Your helenium seeds turned out beautiful, too. Karen

Welcome bellabella_2008 Isn't it amazing how much there is to learn on this website. It's certainly a great place for anyone the least bit interested in everything from gardening to home improvement...and beyond. I'm also new here as well as to gardening but I've already met so many kind, generous people willing to share their time in helping out a newby like myself. I'm sure you'll find the same. Another great source of information is http://www.wintersown.org There you will find answers, data based information and lots of pictures to steer you on. It is there that I found that hollyhocks have been successfully sown from Zones3-9. This will good news to you. I'm not experienced at winter sowing myself. This is my first attempt at it. Regarding the use of the 2L pop bottles for your hollyhocks I would assume you would follow the procedure as you would no matter what seed(s) you were planting. Therefore ... cut the bottle but keep the top. It's important to tape the top back on until the seeds have sprouted. When it is safer to expose them to the outdoor elements the lid will be removed. The idea is that you are creating a mini greenhouse by leaving the top part of the bottle on. The baby plants would be too fragile to survive without it at first. You must leave the screw top off the bottle for ventilation and you may also want to add a few more vent holes/slit in the top of the bottle as well. The bottom portion of the bottle must be given drainage holes before you add your soil and seeds as well. Very important. Be sure to really clean the bottles well before you plant in them. Personally I would cut it lower than half way. It would give your seeds more head room if they grow tall & fast. I only say this because I know hollyhocks are tall plants but I don't know if they sprout and grow quickly. These are just general responses to your questions. I was more concerned that you seemed to think that you didn't need the bottle top. You do. Like I said...for really good indepth advice check out the website I mentioned above. Lots of info and pictures too. If you have any more questions feel free to ask. Maybe someone with experience will answer you. You could also start a thread of your own asking your questions. That would ensure it would be seen and addressed by a larger audience. I only knew you posted here because I'm connected to this particular thread. Anyway...keep the bottle tops so you can reattach them. Not sure about when they will flower. Take that question and start another thread in the gardening section regarding " hollyhocks " and you'll get all your answers I'm sure. Happy planting. kanuk

instead of buying clear boxes (which I would never do) - I just take a thick marker (red, black, something that is easy to read from 4 ft away), find a clear spot on the box or put a white label and write on the face front of each box a brief description of each shoe - "red AK sandals", "blue suede", etc. I always know each shoe's name - they are your best friends, right? That way I still use the box they came in with, and when I clean/rotate out of season shoes, I make sure they go into their own box. The ones that are out of season or dress shoes that I rarely use, all get stacked on highest shelf in the closet. DH comes handy when I need to reach them ;-) If he is not home, I just use step ladder that I need to have in the house anyway - my 5ft vs his 6ft.

I've grown sugar cane in containers in zone7. The first back in 2016 looked like Pele's smoke, I picked up at local nursery. It was part of "window sill collection" barrista pack (coffee, tea, sugar cane). It grew fast from coffee stirrer size in March to good eating cane in Sept. I up potted about 6x from original 2.5in container to 20 gal root pouch. I wasn't able to over winter. I just got new Jamaican sugar cane from baker creek this year. Same coffee stirrer size but growing well sending out lots of new shoots. I may experiment with one in ground and one potted to see who gets thicker cane.