Echinaceas never do real well for me, but ruds grow like weeds. I've never tried the others.

Karen

So far, scabiosa has been a 100% dud for me. I got seeds from 2 or 3 different trades and seed that I collected myself, all nada. Some WS is dec/jan. Some sowed in the last month or so, nada. (shrugs)

Most were small seed, but I received some in trade that were really BIG and those are nothing.

Osteopermum also, so far, no go.

Echinaceas, Rudbeckias and Cupid's dart are up and growing.

My dud was Nicotiana tinker bell from Valueseeds.

My Scabiosa aren't dud's this year but germination has been way low; doing another container today. I had a few from last year winter-over though and they are putting out new leaves...that was completely not expected!

Nothing yet from any of these:
Celosia (3 different ones)
Rose Orach (2nd year duds)
Borage
Black Cherry Tomato
Nasturtium (3 different ones)
False Lobelia (Monopsis debilis)
Statice sinuata
Datura (3 different ones)
Hibisicus Cherry Red
Lupine 'Chatelaine'
Salvia transylvanica
Yvonne's Salvia
Salvia 'Bonfire'
Amaranthus tricolor 'Joseph's Coat'
African Daisy mixed
Prairie Dropseed
Cuphea ignea 'Matchless'
Cosmos dwarf white

Zinnia just sown May 4th so not expected just yet.

I dont feel so bad now.
Scabiosa (from trade)
Astilbe (from trade)
3 different colors Gaillardia (from trade)
Pansy Acquarelle Hybrid Mix (Park Seed)
Lunaria (collected and already dumped the container)
Bells of Ireland (commercial seed)
Nigella (commercial seed)
Bachelor Buttons (commercial)
Forget Me Nots (commercial)

I have had some amazing success with the seeds that I didnt really want but planted out of boredom, so next year I will only plant seeds that I dont care if they grow.

I did not have great success with coneflower, got 4-5 but I sowed heavier than that. None of my purple datura show anything yet. Also nothing in the BeautyBerry jug. I sowed 2 packs of petunias and maybe had 3 plants. Can't think of the others right now but seems like the most were herbs that sprouted, but were kind of sparse. I do have some zinnias and cosmos not showing anything yet but those were sowed much later so I am not real concerned about those yet.

I thought you were asking about my clothes!

I was going to say: lycra long johns, torn up jeans, a beautiful wide brim straw had, tons of sunscreen, duck boots, and a work shirt ...

tansy - had I not read YOUR post I would have said : Well, I am comfortable in jeans, but sometimes I wear shorts...

Duds? Hmmm, I messed up with my annual geraniums, last year they were great, I am thinking maybe the seeds were old (?) Anyway, bought a new package the other day, will try again.

Carrie

My duds so far have been:

love lies bleeding
datura
3 of 4 varieties of nasturtium
scarlet flax
baby blue eyes (I got only 1 seedling)
virginia stocks
scabiosa
peony poppies
echinacea bravado (but magnus and ruby star are doing well)
cosmos
campanula cashmeriana
ageratum
cal poppy sundew
morning glories
pavonia (rock rose)

It's funny because I've done some spring sowings of cosmos, scarlet flax, baby blue eyes, virginia stock, and love lies bleeding and had germination in half of those varieties within days.

Is it possible that these types of seeds just rot in the winter if they're too wet for too long?

I've got a little salt shaker to scatter seeds now. The only ones that have done really well are the poppies. I also found that mixing tiny seeds with granulated sugar like I planted my lobelia in window boxes inside in the sunroom doesn't seem to have hurt any, but there are bare spots I got some more seeds to scatter on there.

Some seed companies don't send you very many seeds, the purple poppy seeds I got from a lilybulb place, and they are very generous. They are actually way too thick.

The one I wanted the most is adenophora bulleyana, Ladybells. I don't know if I'm seeing what I want to see, a couple teeny tiny things or wishful thinking. Maybe it had to warm up to where we are now to start sprouting. But I'm starting to see a little moss buildup which, to me, is usually a bad omen. I held back an extra packet, but they are so slow they need to be wintered in a cold frame, so forget that.

The white foxgloves I'm going to have quite a few if I don't mess them up transplanting. For as large as the plants get, they sure are tiny things.

My allysum and crazy daisy (first collected from prior year, second ebay) only a few, not good. Alyssum is easy to transplant, had it in gobs from seed the first year, but couldn't find the exact same seed again from American meadows. One plant of this spreads quite a bit and gets up to 4" tall, good for borders and trailing.

Now I have to worry about squirrels. They are leaving the poppies alone so far, probably because they are so dense, but I think I'd better try to cover the other ones when I open them with chicken wire. They ruined my little violas I had set out in a window box last year.

The rudbeckia is so so. I don't need too many of each kind so it really doesn't matter all that much, but overall, I don't think I did so well with my first attempt.

I've got more set out in KFC containers now, all my annual salvias & some odds and ends. Oh my White Wedding Zinnias from Burpee, hope they do something. Again when I take the lids off, always the squirrels and chipmunks to keep them away from. Once the soil packs in better, they tend to leave them alone.

I will try liquid fence, too, forgot about that.

Most of my duds were old seeds. I also used a seedling mix that seemed to inhibit growth in some seedlings. When I resowed those duds or moved stunted seedlings to Pro-Mix the growth was much improved.

Even so, I had poor to no germination (with no excuses) from the following:

Marigold 'Kilimanjaro White' poor
Cleome spinosa 'Rose Queen' poor
Sanvitalia procumbens 'Orange Sprite' poor
Zinnia 'Highlight'poor
Millet 'Jester' none so far

Some of the best germination rates came from Ferry & Morse seeds purchased at local garden centers.

I'm still waiting on:
Columbine Oragami Mix
Astilbe Mix
Balloon Flower Astra Double Mix (which I REALLY want)

Everything else has sprouted. Though I'm noticing SLOWWW growth w/ some of the following:
Four O'Clocks Broken Colors
Digitalis
Hardy Hibiscus
Lavender Munstead
Poppies
Yarrow Summer Berries

Then we have my group of gangbuster plants. Of which, the following are growing like WEEDS!:
African Daisies
Hollyhock Creme de Cassis
Morning Glory
Bells of Ireland

My Rudbeckia hirtas, Irish eyes, Prairie sun, Gloriosa and Cappucino (commercial and traded) are all up and growing like gangbusters. The Rudbeckia triloba and amplexicaulis are a no-show so far. Both of those were from trades.

Out of 6 species of Asclepias (Milkweed) and Milkweed vine, all have sprouted except for tuberosa (butterfly weed).

4 species of Monarda/Bee balm have sprouted except for 1 container of M. punctata, although the other container of punctata HAS sprouted (phew, maybe I forgot to spread seeds?).

I sowed 5 native vines - Trumpet vine, Aristolochia, Clematis virginiana, Milkweed vine, and Passiflora incarnata - the only that hasn't sprouted yet is the Passiflora vine.

No signs of life yet in any of these -

Savlia 'Lady in Red'
Salvia 'coral Nymph'
Yvonne's Salvia
Agastache 'Apache sunset', 'Purple pygmy', 'Apricot Sprite'
Chasmanthium - Sea Oats grass
Phlox maculata (Meadow phlox) but paniculata and divaricata have sprouted

A few containers are still ????, maybe have 1 sprout and I'm not sure if it's a weed or the real deal.

In the last week and 1/2, I sowed lots of Zinnias, Tithonia, Tomatoes, Chile peppers, Basil, Parsley, Savory and none of those have sprouted yet.

Gotta correct that last statement! I just went out and checked the Zinnia 'Persian Carpet' and Zinnia Profusion Apricot have sprouted! Sowed those in yogurt cups.

I had a lot of duds this year.
Scabiosa..very poor germination from both. I sowed Ace of Spades and Fire King..both commercial seeds I think.
Astrantia
4 o'clocks...I've never had any germination ever from winter sowing these. I think this is the third year!
Pipevine hasn't sprouted and none of the trees or shribs I tried have sprouted..that would be Winterberry, Dogwood,Viburnum and Flowering Almond. All were commercial seeds except for the Winter berry. I sowed all of those last Fall!!
Chelone
Ageratum
Snapdragons
Ebony Shoo Fly
Blue Balloon flowers

All were duds so don't feel too bad!! We're all in good company!!!

I didn't sow any 4 o'clocks this year, thinking I'd get volunteers. Boy, do I have volunteers! Hundreds, I swear. I'm getting rid of those too, along with the verbena bonariensis.

Two years now I've had no or low germination on balloon flowers. This year one sprout.

Snapdragons always do well for me. I have a few that survived winter.

Karen

My worst one has been one variety of morning glory bought online. I can't believe the ones from the 10 cent rack at the discount store did great and the others, so far, not a one has germinated.

Live and learn, I suppose.

my duds
Vinca
heather
blackberry lilly-from w/s
morning glory-mini rose
cup&saucer vine

did 2 jugs of cleome 1-parks 1-w/s nothing from parks
w/s looks great

I had great germ. from Amaranthus but, hasn't done a thing for a month

3 cosmos happyring & seashell fine. double click nothing

I had to plant out nastys today roots all around the bottom of cups & jug. Did one in a lasagna pan- only one sprout in the whole thing
go figure

I did pansys all fired up was really excited for them but, there is not much germ. and I love to look at these early in the season always buy some flats to put in pots outside doors and windows.

I have not given up hope on all duds yet!1

Annette

Wah! Way too many duds this year!

agastache anisata
alstromeria (again!!)
ambrosia
3 kinds of snaps
two columbines (usually really good for me!)
8 - EIGHT!! - kinds of asters (REALLY wanted these!)
bells of Ireland
some celosia
cirsium
coreopsis American Dream
some cosmos (surprising! 6 other kinds did great!)
some dahlias
delph Magic Fountains
sweet william Summer Sundae
didiscus
digitalis Apricot
echinacea paradoxa
emilia (huh??? what gives on this?!)
feverfew (ditto!!)
two kinds of gomphrena
impatiens
KMOTGG (5th year trying, lol!)
knautia
larkspur
two kinds of lisianthus
four kinds of petunia
polyanthus
primula
ratibida
rudbeckia Indian Summer
salvia Victoria (another "huh?"!!)
scabiosa
three kinds of statice
verbena bonariensis

Phew! Rather disappointing this year....

:)
Dee

I am new to w/s, so I don't know if mine are all duds or if they just need more time. I did look up a couple of them (like Cimifuga) and it said that it could take up to a year so I will wait on the ones that can be late germinators. I think that the following ones MIGHT be duds:

6 of Daylilies
2 of Switchgrass
2 of Grazelle grass
1 Dwarf Red Fountain Grass
1 Veronica spicata "Red Fox"
1 Poppy red
1 Silphium perfolatum
1 Echinacea "White Swan"
2 Lobelia "Crystal Palace" (commercial)
1 Clematic "Nelly Moser"
2 Clematis "Sweet Autumn"
1 Dahlia "Stargazer"
1 Rudbeckia maxima
1 Rudbeckia lacinata
1 Hollyhock Purple
1 Echinacea "Sunrise" (I had 1 cont. germinate)
1 Japanese Maple
2 containers of Siberian Iris
5 different roses
1 Penstemon "Huskers Red"
1 Aster dumosus
1 Scabiosa red
1 Feather Reed Grass
1 Pink Boltonia
1 Monkshood
1 Ironweed baldwinii
2 different coreopsis
1 Asclepias tuberosa "Gay Butterflies"
1 Hardy Hibiscus Pink
1 White tail fountain grass
4 containers of Cimifuga
2 New Jersey Tea (1 cont might have a sprout)

Overall I think I did pretty good, that is about all the duds I have out of 303 containers. I was suprised tough, that I sowed pretty heavily in all my containers and in a few I had a only a couple of sprouts.

Rhonda

So far here is what I got out of my 1st year wintersowing:

These have all been planted out already...
Multiple Colors of Lupine
Curassavica Milkweed
Hairy Balls Milkweed
Swamp Milkweed
Variegata Milkweed
Unknown Milkweed
White Coneflower
Tennessee Purple Coneflower
Pink Coneflower
Sundown Coneflower
Hello Yellow Milkweed
Purpurascens Milkweed
Pink Rose Campion
Multiple Bee Balms
Bachelor Buttons
Coleus
Cosmos

These are still to small to plant out:
Brandywine Tomato
Ponderosa Red Tomato
Bush Celebrity Tomato
Baby Beefsteak Tomato

These have done nothing so far:
Lantana
Burning Bush
Yvonne's Salvia
Curassavica Milkweed
Hyacinth Bean Vine

out of 279 jugs i've got 60 no shows. mostly perennials. gallardias
monkshood
some salvias
i'm not gonna list them too many. but, its such a bummer. i've never had this many no shows before. i did have gallardia something show up yesterday,.so i am holding out for the rest of them. i think i have 4 more varieties. but i really wanted the monkshood and salvias are my favorites.
tanya

Columbine Rocky Mountain Blue
Blue Eyed Grass
Sunflower (i can't believe it myself!!!!)
Periwinkle Mix (may not be warm enough yet)
Thunbergia Spanish Eyes

Tansy, LOL! Way to look at things from another perspective!

My monarda is just starting to sprout. Keep your fingers crossed!

Dee: I also have no emilia coming up in my jugs, but I think I have some volunteers coming up in my beds. Yvonne's salvia is also slow to sprout for me this year compared to last year, but last year we had really hot weather. It was in the 90s already in May, I think. I have hundreds of Yvonne's salvia volunteers this year. I might just have to go with them.
Yvonne's salvia volunteers
{{gwi:350582}}

Other surprises were just a few seedlings in jugs of nigella, BBs, and forget me not. Those few were big, so I planted them out and dumped into beds. Maybe more will come up.

I have so many volunteers but of course can't ID them. I have to post pictures on some other thread.
Four o'clock volunteers. I have to wipe these out, too. No more of them for me.
{{gwi:350584}}

And if I were you, I'd dump that verbena bonarienses in the garbage. I have never seen anything like those volunteers. They cover all my beds this year, and every time I scratch them up, new ones replace them.

It's really interesting to see what different people have trouble with germinating.

Karen

Karen, you have the touch. I can't get 4:00 to volunteer and my verbena bonarensis are fairly police re-seeders. Must be nicer conditions down south!

Karen,
Just remember, Japanese Beetles like 4'Oclocks and it kills them! You might not want to get rid of them all.
(Need any extra cash? Pot 'em up and sell 'em!)

I throw away 30 or more seedlings every year after planting out others where I want them. I have them all over the yard. They have a nice scent, too.
This year, I'm going to try to get more of the white, red, and fuschias in the front bed, and then pull the tubers.

Linda

ghoghunter,Astrantia likes warm/cold/warm to germinate,I tried some under lights,3weeks warm,3 weeks in the refrigerator and than I sat them out. Nothing yet from mine,but I think I accidentally cooked the seeds...ugh! I am going to try again with left over seed over the summer if they don't sprout soon.Good Luck with yours! :)
I have several that could be considered duds,I am not giving up on them just yet.I am pretty sure most of them are just slow to germinate. I am giving them until the end of June,except the clematis,I will give most of them until next year,a couple even longer. A couple types I am re sowing just in case, because, I really wanted them. Hopefully I will end up with more than expected,instead of none!:)

My duds thus far are Tennessee coneflower and Ornamental pepper, marigolds. I know there are more but bc of my awful lack or records or legible writing on the jugs Im not sure what the hold outs are. I just know that I was really looking foward to the coneflower and the Orn pepper. Oh well, I am still holding out for them and the rest of my jugs. I have so many plants to plant that I am one happy girl.

Betsy

Oops! Sorry about those picture sizes. Photobucket software has changed since I last used it and somehow my photo size blew up. Next time I upload photos I will resize them.

Bakemom: You have police reseeders? Sounds like you're growing cops! Cute typo. Anyway, since I started doing the organic things a few years ago, it certainly does seem fertile here. I get lots of volunteers now, unlike before, even though I mulch heavily twice a year. And things just seem to grow more and better.

Four o'clocks? Though I love their evening scent, Just getting to be a pain, as seen above. Not too worried about the Japanese beetles, let 'em duke it out with the other bugs. And they start blooming late in the year and not during the day, so I just want to move on to something else. So many plants, so little time...

I still have about 6 dud jugs, a few with only a few seedlings, and have already dumped just one or 2 with no sprouts and lots of green gunk. We're having a lot of rain (2-3 days) so maybe some of the slow-pokes will be pushed to sprout.

Karen

Do the "datura" that turned out to be linaria count as duds? Talk about a disappointment!

Becky

I don't want to talk about my duds ... there are too many of them. Some old seed, some not ... all depressing.

PV

Today some "duds" surprised me and sprouted! Yippeee!

Sowed 3 types of Salvia on Feb 26th, thought they might have rotted or something. I was even contemplating re-sowing them, because some posters here said their Yvonne's Salvia sprouted better when they sowed in the Spring. But 2 of them sprouted today -

Yvonne's Salvia - so excited there are 3 sprouts!
Salvia 'Coral Nymph'

Asclepias tuberosa sprouted today - butterfly weed - all the other Asclepias have sprouted, this was the last hold out.

And the last Monarda sprouted too, Spotted Bee balm, 2nd container. All the other species of Monarda (except one from a trade) sprouted about 2 weeks ago

So I guess the moral of the story is not to give up too soon on the duds because some of them aren't duds! :)

sigh ... my disappointments so far are pink honeysuckle, huckleberries, russian sage, blue campanula, blue columbine, yellow columbine, lolla rosa lettuce, trout lettuce, lavender ...

I have seen some really tiny sprouts in all of these today so am still waiting to see if they are the real deal or just some lucky volunteers.

several salvias, agastache and 5 different plantings
of cannas, from trades.

I have one lonely little canna sprout - big bummer
it's my first year to grow them.

I'm so ready to dump out:
Borage
Rose Orach
Black Cherry Tomatoes...can't even get them started indoors with bottom heat!! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I'll give a little more time with everything else, but just a little!

Oh boy Karen! Never gave a thought to 4 O'clock re-seeders; I'll be on the lookout now LOL! So far germination is poor in the Broken Colors and Yellow, but just started last week; more may be revealed! My majority of self-sown babies this year are Nigella, Larkspur, Linaria, Poppy, Sunflower, Alyssum, Amaranthus, Verbena, Clarkia and Catmint up the wazoo!!! There's a few Snapdragons but not a whole lot...and of course the ones that I didn't lose over the winter are growing gangbusters :D

All the ws seedlings have grown far too slow this year with the below average April temps. The biggest seedlings are the Tomatoes...go figure...especially Brandywine. Some started germinating indoors, but mostly outside. I'll be setting them free next weekend.

My "dud" is sitting on the chair watching TV (LOL)
I have some duds but will list them tomorrow. The japanese
beetles must have flew over here, I was wondering what got into my 4:00's!!! Maybe 7 dust will help.

Police re-seeders! That's funny. I work downtown, so I must have been distracted. Verbena b. is a polite re-seeder.