ME!!
I couldn't grow anything before, but look out now !!
This is my 3rd year & I have been averaging about 200 jugs plus !! WA---HOOO!! Thanks Trudi ")
lilly
{{gwi:364689}}

I'll have to admit I never even thought to start perennials from seed. Previously I'd only started annuals and summer vegetables. Now I'm crazy wild for wintersowing. And not just perennial flowers, but shrubs and trees and grasses. You name it. What a rush! :-D

Thanks Trudi.
And thanks ws buddies on this forum!
You rock!

I've never had luck growing perennials from seed, except some delphiniums. Still not sure if I can. I've sown hollyhocks, lupine and a whole bunch of things from generous people on the seed exchange, but so far nothing's come up. Then again, it's still early and some in the DC/Va. area are just getting sprouts of some of the same plants and we're about two weeks behind them here in SE PA so my fingers are crossed.

Great photo, lilly!!

Well, technically I *could* grow things from seed. But not very well. And not very much.

I had very limited space - only a few flats near a few windows.

And while I did get germination, most either died off or, more likely, froze to death when I forgot to bring them back in after a day outside hardening off.

So I pretty much gave up on growing from seed.

And then I found this forum....

:)
Dee

Like Dee, I could grow things from seed, but with limited results. I usually had some damp-off. his will essentially be my first yr ws. Got my fingers crossed.I have 161 containers out now, with tender things planned for later in the month.
tammy

ME! ME! ME! Never could get a hang of that hardening off thing... I love WS. :)

Leisa

Me, me, me!

Well the jury's still out for me and Wintersowing since this is my first year.

But I've tried growing from seed indoors under lights so many times. My only success EVER with seeds was a pack of shasta daisies (I still love them...my little babies) but I have no idea what I did differently with those than with all my failed attempts.

The always sprouted fine, but got weak and leggy and finally just died after a few weeks.

I was a complete failure before discovering Winter Sowing...many thanks to our fearless leader Trudi!

Me too.

Well, I grew things from seed for 20 years before winter-sowing. Lights, flats outside, direct sowing. I still direct sow quite a few things.

Winter-sowing makes it so much easier though and I start a lot more stuff from seed than ever before.

Yes I was a falilure at growing under lights inside. Now I can grow almost anything outside!

Karen

Okay, is everyone going to hate me/stone me/shun me if I say I've grown balloon flowers, daylilies, false indigo, columbine, lupine, coreopsis, foxglove and several other perennials from seed? I'm new to WS this year so they've all been grown the indoor sunny window method up to this year. Have to admit I can't seem to grow bottle gentian--tried cold, dark, cold & dark and have had zero success. If anyone else has managed to grow it, I'd sure appreciate hearing how.
Why did I try winter sowing? Growing indoors is fun and nice but doesn't begin to compare with the advantages of winter sowing that I'm hoping I'll get to enjoy this year. So far I've "enjoyed" sowing almost 350 jugs and hope to enjoy sowing quite a few more.
The closest I came to growing under lights was an energy-saving bulb in a pole lamp a few feet from my sunny window. I used to leave it on all day.

I think wintersowing jugs just automatically turns a brown thumb turn bright green. I tried starting things indoors several times before wintersowing, but everything always died. Thanks to wintersowing it seems like no matter where I sow something, it grows! I can now start tomatoes and peppers inside (as well as out in jugs). My son even grew cucumbers in a dog dish (with no drainage). It looked like mud soup when he did it but a couple weeks later he had babies in there! He loves to help me with WSing and gardening.

I had no luck at all before w/s. Now I feel like I could grow almost anything. Yeah! And Thank You Trudi!

Gardenweed, I'm not sure where your suggestion for dark came from....surface sow as some light may be beneficial to germination.

Treat them otherwise like hellebores, warm, cold, cool. I have to sow these outdoors in late summer/early Fall or do the first step indoors and WS for steps 2 & 3, have no way to provide the 50ish temps for the last period in their germination indoors - without suffering myself :)

Gentiana andrewsii (bottle gentian) - sow outdoors late summer or use 4 weeks at 68F, 4-6 months at (day/night average) 40F or below, move to 50ish for germ. Again, surface sow or barely cover, do not exclude light.

morz8 - I'm very grateful for the bottle gentian seed starting information. Thank you for taking the time to write it all out for me!! I'd love to be able to grow it from seed. I even have quite a nice supply of seed so I'll try again this year following your instructions.
Eileen

I could, but it was at another home where I had double windows built into a two feet thick basement foundation, sort of like 5 little greenhouses built into the foundation. Don't ask - it was just a funny thing they did in 100 year old houses around here.

Discovering wsing the year I moved was a blessing since I lost my 5 little greenhouses.

Morz8, The germinating conditions for the Great Yellow Gentian must be different as I have a little army of them. :O)

How does it feel, Trudi, to know that you have a HUGE fan club? I can't believe that this crazy process of WSing actually works! I'm about to start my annuals this weekend and that will make it about 200 plus containers!!

me too.

wasnt a "complete" failure, but d+ at the most before.

:)
D

Gardenweed, you're welcome, let us know how they do. I've been sowing the willow gentian that way most recently, oddly, from a pure deep blue flowered plant long established in my garden, I've gotten quite a few pure white flowering seedlings.

Tiffy, willow gentian, happier than bottle gentian in my clay based soil with constant winter wet germinates great with the warm/cold/cool too, and the suggestions for g. lutea are similar, but then never say never.

My own army of unexpected seedlings this year....Scrophularia nodosa aka figwort. The instructions from Chilterns with the seeds suggested very slow, try warm/cold/cool, weeks of all three. The Clothiers database said 41F, germ. irregular, often several months.

I decided to give them a brief warm moist period indoors first (after all, what could it hurt) and then put them outside.... and the darned seeds germinated in about 8 DAYS under a skylight in my guest room. Now I'm stuck with caring for them until they can be hardened off when I hadn't planned on it :)

My last attempt at gowing the "normal/natural" way was 1/2 usually things die on me when I try it in flats and other medium like that. But this was just weird even for me.

It was a rental house we had and I wanted flowers so I cleared the grass from both sides of the walk way to the front door and then I follwed the seed packets info.Direct Sowed. Ok done that seed both sides. Took care and babied the area. Well only 1 side ever germinated. Just one side of the walk way. So weird same seed pack the were marigolds.
That was the last time I ever tried to grow anything from seed until I found the wintersowing. Now I have more seeds and soon more plants than I know what to do. Well excpet give some away to a group here who is going to plant flowers in the nerby cemetary (sp). Most of my left overs will go to them this year.

Paula

I can't say I couldn't completely grow from seeds, but it was more of a miss than a hit before WS. It was just too much trouble and too much failure for seedlings to thrive since I was too cheap to keep grow light going for hours on end and we keep our house quite chilly in winter.

My first success with Petunia was what kept me going with WS.
I still do a lot of direct sowing, though especially if I have excess seeds. :-)

Add me to the list. I can grow peas, and sweet peas once, but the hardening off always croaked everything else.

Thanks winter sowing and this wonderful community of gardeners! :)

cheers,
Norabelle

I am an GUL failure and direct sowing failure. Those under lights died from too much attention. Those direct sown died from neglect or DH's weed whacker, he thought if it was green and growing in my flower bed than it had to be a weed, took out my first annual bed all that survived where 2 orange cosmos that never got more than 4 inches high.

In the end, as much as I spent on set up, soil and seed, it would have been cheaper to stock my yard with nursery grown plants. Those 2 cosmos probably cost me $75 bucks a piece.

Wintersowing, so much more bang for the buck.

MARY

Maybe Mary created a winter sowing bumper sticker or t-shirt campaign: winter sowing: so(w) much more bloom for the buck! :) I'd buy it!

Cheers,
Norabelle

I can't look at this thread any more without posting lol. I could grow from seed but winter sowing might turn out to be much better.

No matter which way I've tried, I've had failures, and nobody taught me how to plant perennials, just used my intuition. It worked for many but got tedious spring sowing because I'd have to open sooner and be diligent about misting. Starting inside even in or very near a south window I had problems, too. But it can be done.

Anything avoiding hardening off and preventing damping off is a huge plus which WS'ing will do for you.

I can start under lights, and the only good thing with mine is that some seeds germinate very quickly. But they're too spindly so I moved them to a south window.

I am an GUL failure and direct sowing failure. Those under lights died from too much attention. Those direct sown died from neglect or DH's weed whacker, he thought if it was green and growing in my flower bed than it had to be a weed, took out my first annual bed all that survived where 2 orange cosmos that never got more than 4 inches high.

In the end, as much as I spent on set up, soil and seed, it would have been cheaper to stock my yard with nursery grown plants. Those 2 cosmos probably cost me $75 bucks a piece.

Wintersowing, so much more bang for the buck.

MARY

Ok, that's weird, how did My post from Sunday repost on Monday. May have hit submit twice on accident but why would it take another day to show up?

Norabelle, that is a clever twist.