wow some great photos everyone! My goal is to take pictures this year. I have some pretty areas but I never take pictures.

Karen

I'm really enjoying looking at the photos posted to this thread. Thanks!

Below is a link to a couple photo sets of mine on Flickr, one set is of Raising Monarch butterflies, the other is of some of my favorite native plants and pollinators. Some of the plants were winter-sown (Asters & Monarda), but most weren't.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flickr photos

terrene I love the butterfly pics. I'm hoping I'll be able to attract more monarchs along with native bees to my gardens. Last year I saw at least 7 different kinds of butterflies, but only 2 monarchs. Hopefully your milkweed seed gifts will turn the trick!

remy - winter was my choice to start a blog too. Before that I was just too darn busy! Good thing I got my blog established BEFORE I found WS forum. LOL

Kris

Wow! Great gardens everyone! Molanic, I especially like that stand of coreopsis and shasta daisies - pretty!

Nan - that is a terrific WS setup! Your gardens are great - what do your neighbors think (especially the ones with the boring hedges - lol!)?

Off to explore some more ....

PV

Love seeing everyone flowers, garden friends too.

Way more pictures then anyone would want to look but here's my albums.

Here is a link that might be useful: maozamom's pictures

All the gardens are beautiful. I want spring!!!
Here's my album. I need to organize it but would rather spend time with my plants. :-P

Karen,
How far are you from Chicago? Would you like to drive over in say early May for plants? I live in the city by O'Hare, not far from the I90/94. I have tons of plants to divide and give away. I hate to throw them out. Pls. email me. I am serious. I post an offer of plants on Freecycles every spring.

pitimpinai, I live about 45 miles from Chicago. (West of Aurora, IL)

Of Course I would love to take some plants off your hands :)

That is so generous of you to give away plants rather than throwing them out!! I have met so many nice people around here I just can't believe it!

I would definitely make a trip to visit you when you divide. I would even help!!

Karen

mao tse mom - have started looking through your albums. Is that your house? What a joyful color combo!!
Kris

Yes Mao,
I also LOVE your home,so prtty.
And your garden is also very,Very,VERY,nice.
I love looking at every ones gardens,thanks for sharing.
cAROL

Great photos everyone, thanks for sharing. I have been following some of these blogs for a few months and enjoy reading about your gardening activities. I lurk on your blogs as haven't figured out how to make comments there.

Kiddo, great explanation of ws and photos.

Token, nice to see your spring photos.

Karendee, hope to see more photos of your gardens this year, cute cats

Nan 6061, what is the plant with the pink bloom in 2007 photos 8 & 9?

friesfan1, I also cover my tulips with wire cages due to those pesky wabbits.

Molanic, love the photo of the hummer on the zinnia

Remy, that Fantin Latour rose is gorgeous, will have to check it out to see if it is hardy in my zone.

Terrene, love that pink aster, symphoptrichum novae angliae, is it ws?

Mao tse mom, great hostas and daylilies, thanks for labeling the daylilies as I am just learning about the different varieties. What is the pink bellflower, photo 2 2-6-06-25? Such large bells! Great makeover of the chicken coop.

pitimpinai, your link opens to the log in page, not your album, look forward to seeing your photos another time.

It has been so much fun viewing everyones gardens!

Kiddo - yup, thats me - all the WSing on shelves, this year in alpha order too! Just a little OCD! Actually, my beds are extrememly UN organized, but my family gives me grief about the WS set up so I make it tidy.

Mary - Did you grow that colorful verbena from seed? Love it.

Molanic - oooh, now I can't wait to see if my white hollyhock seeds germinate! Yours are gorgeous!

Terrine - That stand of lobelia cardinalis is awesome. I am going to plant whatever germinates in my jug all together to get a nice full effect like that.

Remy - I don't have the greatest "touch" with roses but would love to try that one - so pretty - is it hard to care for?

Pvick - My neighbor was the horticulture specialist for almost 40 years at Cornell Cooperative Extension before he retired a few years ago. He has a small, tidy garden of flowers and yes, VERY tidy shrubs, hedges and bushes! Nice man, great neighbor, but he just shakes his head in wonder at all this WSing stuff.

Mao - OK, I want your house. And all the furniture and cabinets. And the pretty decorative stuff. Please? How lucky you are!

Nancy

I was just contacted by an Author/Radio Host Dr. W. Bradford Swift, who Winter Sows! I'll paste in the link to his blog.

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Sowing -- An Experiment in Simple Gardening On Purpose

Kris,
See I never knew bees would come out anytime it warmed up even in winter! I'm glad I still see them being how many people don't. Maybe because I live near the water and there is a lot of uncultivated land?

mnwsgal,
I know Fantin is definitely open ground, wind whipping from the west, cane hardy in zone 6. Maybe in a sheltered area in your garden?

Nan,
Almost all the roses I grow are easy care.The ones that are not will eventually die, lol. I truly do have a survival of the fittest rose garden. I do not spray, and I hardy ever fertilize or water. I was so glad when I finally got a camera to prove I wasn't lying about their condition.
I do of course plant in well amended soil with lots of mulch, and prune. Pruning in the spring is a big task, and it takes me awhile to complete, but other than that I care for them no more than any other perennial. I do plan on profiling more of my roses as I have time.

Mao, your house looks like it is straight out the west side of Buffalo. I love it!
Remy

OT: Couldn't help but notice when I found a lovely garden blog called "Robin's Nesting Place" that she tried WSing in 2008 and later said that she was more successful indoor sowing than with WS.
While perusing her blog, she put up a picture of her seeds, containers, soil, etc.
I would say with almost 100% certainty that the reason she failed was because she used Hyponex soil.

DON'T USE IT!

Sorry for the interruption...back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Sorry, Bobbie. I changed the setting. It should be accessible now. A couple pictures are of the temple (the new arber), the rest is my gardens. :-)
Karen, yes, definitely. Come over when you can when it gets warmer.
I need to check everybody's link. Mao, I want that house!

The Fantin Latour rose is hardy to Zone 4 so I will be looking for it here. Remy, glad to know that you find it easy to care for as I have put off adding roses as don't want to spend extra time on fussy plants, also hate thorns. Will check the MN Arboretum for more info.

pitimpinai, thanks, the link works now. So much beauty in your gardens. Please tell me the name of the pale blue iris. I like the arbor. Do you know what will be growing on it?

pitimpinai, thanks so much your gardens are beautiful.
Karen

ooops, just saw that I forgot to answer your question Mnswgal---- what is the plant with the pink bloom in 2007 photos 8 & 9?

Isn't it pretty? But it's a shameful one. It is (cringe)purple loosestrife..yes, before everyone writes to tell me it is invasive - I do know (now). I didn't know when I bought it and planted it (a few seasons before learning about WSing). It is not a prolific spreader in my yard and I do not share or trade seeds as it apparently can be a real problem near waterways, clogging things up. I checked with my local "Seagrant" agency and it is not a problem here, so I have not pulled the plants in my beds.

I love it with "White Swan" echinacea in my beds.

Nancy

I thought it might be purple loosestrife, such a beautiful plant. I received one from a swap two years ago and disposed of it last year when I found out what it was. It is a problem here in MN.

Last summer I asked my tree trimmer to remove a large buckthorn that I have near the house. He said that since it has never bloomed or had any seeds that it was not necessary to remove it.

Mnwsgal, the pink New England aster was winter-sown (only got 1 sprout). It didn't get very big last year, but one nice thing about all the Asters I wintersowed is that they bloomed a little the first year. I think I lucked out getting a pink plant, which is a less common color? Also, your Buckthorn tree could be Rhamnus cathartica, Common Buckthorn. It is dioecious, which means that it has separate male and female plants. Yours is probably a male - which means it won't ever make berries, but can pollinate any female plants if they are growing in the area. I'm removing the non-native Buckthorns (Glossy & Common) from my yard - they are terribly invasive, and IMO, butt ugly on top of it (not sure I've ever even looked close enough to see the flowers, they're tiny non-descript green things).

Pitimpinai, I think you win the prize for the most beauties jam-packed into a small lot! You must have great soil, because everything looks so lush despite the close planting.

pitimpinai - It's taken 2 cups of coffee, but I finally got through all of your garden pics and frankly, I'm just plain exhausted! ;-D Even your front yard, your tree lawn - the view from the street must stop traffic on a daily basis! How many years have you been developing your gardens? Tell me that there is a lot of WS plants there, my jugs are still frozen solid again. *sigh*

And where do you go now - rooftop gardening? ;-D Thanks for posting your pic link!
Kris

This is my first year wintersowing so I don't have pictures of any finished product, but I did post about wintersowing on my garden blog...(photos too). It's toward the bottom of the page (for now at least, until it gets bumped to the archive)

I'm also starting some seeds indoors and experimenting with presprouting seeds and plunking them out in the garden. I'm trying a little bit of everything this spring it seems...

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

Thank you all for your lovely pictures! As soon as I get unflustered by technology I will post some too!

Audrey

I love them so much. I love seeing all your successes and progress, quite inspirational. You've inspired me to start my own blog. Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of inspirational garden pics laden with flowers, my blog so far is just a look at one newbies progress. Hopefully, this summer or next it will approach the garden utopia so many of you have already achieved.

MARY

Wow, so many of you have such awe inspiring pictures. I'm almost embarrassed to post a link to my blog. It's still a work in progress and hopefully will have more added soon. It's somewhat informational and will also give ongoing updates of what's going on in my garden. There is a Winter Sowing guide, along with a link to Trudi's site. I am planning on adding a Recipe section soon, using ingredients from my garden. I love to cook, so that should be fun.

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Girl Blog

SeedGirl, I really liked your blog! I wanted to let you know it was very nice and liked the pictures.

Karen

Thank you Karen. You're so sweet :)

It's definitely addictive once you start taking pictures. I am looking forward to seeing more of your pics this summer. It's so fun to see what others are doing, and I learn so much that way.

thanks Seedgirl! I am just learning how to post pictures in a GW post. I finally took the time to learn :)

I may take some sprout pics tonight. I like the ones taken down the hole of the jug... so neat!

Karen

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mo girl, your photos of seedlings and of seed collecting should be a great help to newbies wondering what seedling has sprouted or what a seed looks like.

Karen, I love your coneflower! I WS'd echinacea last year, so I'm hoping to see some beautiful purple blooms this year.

Thanks Mnwsgal, I'm trying to think of what would have been helpful when I was getting started. Sometimes it's difficult to find pictures of plants as seedlings or just the foliage. I'm still learning, and will take pictures of the new (to me) plants I grow this year and add them.

Thanks Mo Girl. I have some purple ones also. I traded away all of the seeds so I winter sowed just some of them.

Someone traded me a blue one (the plant) and I hope it comes back this year.

Karen

I got my first sprout today! Lol* Here's a link to my photo...

http://pumpkinpatchquilter.blogspot.com/2009/03/garden-post-i-have-sprout.html

quilt mommy, congratulations on your first sprout and it being special since the seed was from your mom's hollyhock.

Yea for you! The first sprout is exciting and quite a relief. I love hollyhocks.

quilt mommy,
you make amazing quilts! wow! they are so nice.

Thank you guys so much - it was a super big deal! Lol* I have another one now too! Too little hollyhock babies!

Thank you daisy08!!! During the cold months I'm pretty well addicted to quilting. Lol* Now that I've discovered this winter sowing thing though, I think quilts might have some competition! Lol*

qm - maybe we'll see a quilt with jugs and sprouts on it....LOL !
Kris

Kris - that's a good idea!!!!! Lol* You will definitely see quilts outside, I make some just to hang out front each year. LOL

I keep all of my garden photos at Flickr - link below.

Feel free to browse all you like!

Lynda

Here is a link that might be useful: My photos

Lynda - I browsed. I liked!
I wish my property had real topography like yours - more nooks and crannies and visual interest.
Kris

I just ripped out my dusty old blog and turned it into a garden & book blog.
Come & visit.

Here is a link that might be useful: garden & book blog

I love looking at pics when I can't work outside. Here's a few babies.
Char's( my sister) Zinnia Mix ws.
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red poppies ws.
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Blue fescue ws.
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Pattie

Here is a link that might be useful: Some plants

I actually have two.

This is one...

http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s288/jwhite1083/

Here is a link that might be useful: This is the other one

bringing up the thread.

Here's my flickr photo stream...

Here is a link that might be useful: Dirtbert's photo stream

Nice dirtbert!!

I need to start taking more pics... I have some perennials blooming nicely.

Karen

A gardening blog I would like to share

Here is a link that might be useful: flower farm and gardens

Tedd,

Beautiful flowers and photos.

Ok, time to update I guess. These are looking better.
http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z308/urraymcbdz/plants%20today/june2009/

Here is a link that might be useful: june 2009

I don't keep a gardening blog, but I do have pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: Maria's Flower Pictures