Ms Minna, do you have extended or just brief freezes there? If we are going to have wet snow, I leave things be and only protect (which I've surely lost this year but its always worth a try) my big pot of annual geranium. If it's a dry hard freeze in the forecast indicating temps into the teens for several days, I move pots with young perennials into the carport, sometimes put them on my front porch that is protected on two sides and covered, cover plants racks with plastic (Home Depot clear industrial drum liners work great), or drape things pushed close together with old tablecloths, beach towels and hope the wind doesn't take those....anything to give them a few degrees protection. I had a flat of noble fir seedlings under my car one year :) I had 4x5" pots in racks, many, frozen solid in my carport this year for more than 72 hours (weird winter) and I don't think I've lost any....newly rooting rose and shrub cuttings, many first year perennials. The perennials are frozen back to the crowns in their pots, but I don't have any reason to think dead - are you sure yours are goners? What are they and how cold did it get?

We already know that WSrs are thought to be a little strange so I will risk a response here as I am "among friends". I do 50% of my prep and WSing from the trunk of my car on my lunch hour each day! I have to work full time and during prime WSing months I leave before dark and come home after dark. I am living with and caring for my 91 yr old parents who can't tolerate any mess in their home or oddities in their living areas(due to dementia and blindness)so I throw two plastic tubs and a really sturdy hand trowel in the trunk. I buy smaller bags of MG potting soil, simply because I can handle them easier, and always have a couple back there in the trunk. I sow in small styro cups which I've prepped with an ice pick (drainage). This prep is usually done in bed at night as I am drooling over seed catalogs or watching some mindless Steve Martin movie :-) but I digress....back to the sowing. I dash to my car which is in underground parking. I open a gallon of the cheapest bottled water I can find usually about .89 here in Salt Lake City. Pour the whole gallon into a tub of soil about 5 inches deep and stir it all up till it's like really wet brownie batter. The drippier the better. I fill the small styro cups and put about 8 or 10 cups in the second plastic tub to drain. Seeds are sown, spritzed real well with a spray bottle that gets refilled and kept in the trunk, then mark with a china marker/grease pen on plastic knives. Then I put six cups into a small plastic basket from the dollar store and slip the whole thing into a large plastic storage bag. More pokes into the plastic bag with the ice pick, top and bottom, and voila! I'm gardening again!! It's really a desperate situation to have the need to sow and not be able to find more time, but this is working for me. It also keeps my sanity to be able to go and play in the dirt at recess! LOL. Last year I did the trunk thing plus did the other 50% of my WSing each night in my bedroom. Yes, the details on that are a little bizarre so I'll spare you all. Though I don't post but maybe once a year, you are all dear friends to me and I love reading all you have to say and do. I've been WSing since.....hmmm....well this is my 4th year. It totally ROCKS!! Oh I forgot to mention that as I empty the gallon jugs of water each day, those jugs in turn become containers (a'la'Donn's method) for my HOS stuff like poppies, bb's, petunias, etc. I learn so much from all of you! Happy Sowing :-)

DAH!!!! Never thought of the hairdreser too. Will be stoping in at the one in town next time I go in. Thanks for the idea.

I use a holding bed also, it's wonderful if you have the space. It's almost full this year so I'm a little panicky about what I'm in store for this spring. I usually have no idea (except for a few annuals) about where I'm going to plant everything. I do hundreds of pots so it's not an easy task to plan. The minute the weather warms up, I make it my goal to get my pots emptied out of the yard. So, I plant into my holding bed. I plant them really, really close together in strips and tag them. It has it's advantages a) cleans up the yard b) they grow faster in the ground and c) watering is a breeze. Then, I eyeball an area I want to plant. I go back to my holding bed and pick out what I want from there. It's a heck of a lot easier for me than going from pot to pot. It always seems like I need plants, no matter how many I sow. Not all of my containers will germinate. Sometimes, I'll lose something over the winter so a vacancy will appear. Other times, it's just time for a change! It's nice to have last years perennials in the holding bed, all ready to go and bloom :). It's like having my own nursery. I also give away things. It's always nice to send something home with someone. If you have any local gardening clubs, plant exchanges are great.