After helping hundreds of people winter sow this year, I had very little time left over to do so myself. So far I have planted out tomatoes and flowering vinca. I have a lot more vinca, and some zinnias and more tomatoes to plant out. I need to sew more hot weather veggies like peppers!! My rudbeckias are all waiting to be planted out. Those from last year are so gorgeous and full - I can't wait to see them bloom!

GGG

Last month:
Lettuce, Mustard, Collard, Broccoli, Calendula (not all), Clarkia, Matthiola (not all).

This month:
Golden Marguerite, Snapdragon, Sunflower.
Will do Rudbeckia, rest of the Calendula, Matthiola, and not sure what else just yet. Still working on expanding one of the beds to put up a trellis in prep. for the Purple Hyacinth Bean and Cypress Vine; hope they sprout...if not I'll move any self-sown MG that come up or the Heavenly Blue if they aren't too old to germinate LOL!

So far tons of Alyssum and exactly 3 poppy seedlings have made it in the ground.
I'm at war with squirrels that delight in un-planting all of my sprouts. :(
I've potted up Snapdragons, Babys Breath, a few Lupine, one Gaillardia, two Delphinium and some Cosmos.
Once they get a few more sets of leaves (and too big for a squirrel) I'll put them out.

It's funny about these WS babies.
One of the few remaining Poppy seedlings I have is about an inch tall, I dont think anybody else knows that it's in the ground except for me. Every morning I wake up and run outside to make sure it survived the night. I'm almost to the point of making a tiny fence out of toothpicks.
:)

Just about everything. I will finish up this afternoon. From lettuce, to rudbeckias to melampodium.

Dunno how many, but there's a BIG pile of empty containers in one spot:

Asters
Batchelor Buttons
Calendula
Cosmos
Marigold
Sunflowers
Xeranthemum
Schizanthus
Snapdragons
Clarkia

I had tons of each of these- many varieties of each, so many containers are empty. I hope I have room for the Zinnias! Might have to get out the roto-tiller to make more spaces! I have many varieties of marigolds that are just about ready to go out & sunflowers...4:00 & nasties are nearly ready, but I think I'll have to hold off this weekend, as there is another cold snap coming Sat night, so I'll leave the rest in under cover until Sunday likely.

I have to admit I went overboard, and am starting to plunk & run already...

This will be a good opportunity for me to FINALLY get the veggies started!!! Sheesh!
And once the weather gets stable again, the Morning Glories will be out, and um...coleus can be let out of the house (not wintersown, just cuttings galore)

Bakemom, you've done most including maters and tender annuals?

I've planted out just about everything that has germinated, except tomatoes, basils, and zinnias.

What's gone out so far:

Lettuces - 5 different kinds
Broccoli
Peas
Lavender (lost a few, but not all of these to a frost last week)
Sage (lost most of these too!)
Alyssum (lost maybe 1/3 of these, but have another container sown to replace them)
Dianthus knappii
Belacanda chinensis (these are doing awesome)
Penstemon pinifolius 'Compactum' (lost ALL of these)

All of the rest of these were planted in pots on the porch, and are doing very well:

Cilantro
Dill
Marjoram
Calendula (3 different kinds)
Alyssum (annual kind)
Gazania (2 kinds)
Petunia
Verbena

About 1/3 of my containers haven't sprouted yet, and there has been no gemination in over a week, so I am a little disappointed, but have not lost all hope yet. So it looks like my wintersowing season is winding down now.

Bonnie

Don't do maters - not enough sun in the back and haven't sown TENDER annuals. I'm going to direct sow zinnias and cosmos and marigolds.

Well....didn't get to plant anything I wanted too, but got the trellis set up LOL! I GOT to get those carrots in the ground ASAP...I probably already waited too long; tomorrow for absolute sure. Did plant out the Gazania I purchased from the FFA students, but I'm done until tomorrow; carrots, calendula, stock, rudbeckia for sure! Everything is so tiny this year thanks to the below average April temps :(

So I lied! As soon as I posted I ultimately decided to plant some carrots.....30 'Purple Haze' seedlings so far in the ground. There's only about 50 or so more to go! Don't think I have the room...I don't even have another properly prepared area for that matter. I planted them 2" to 2.5" apart...hope that's not too close? I also planted out one hunk-o-carrots to see how that would work aside form the 30 individuals.

So far I have planted out the following:

Curassavica Milkweed
Hairy Balls Milkweed
Swamp Milkweed
Tuberosa Milkweed
Variegata Milkweed
Unknown Milkweed
White Coneflower
Tennessee Purple Coneflower
Pink Coneflower
Sundown Coneflower
Hello Yellow Milkweed
Purpurascens Milkweed
Multiple Bee Balms
Coleus
Orange Cosmos
Mixed Cosmos
Bachelor Buttons
_____________
here is one of my little lupine's aren't they cute??
{{gwi:386268}}
__________________________________
Only have the following left to go:
Ponderosa Red Tomato
Bush Celebrity Tomato
Baby Beefsteak Tomato
Brandywine Tomato
Bachelor Buttons
Pink Rose Campion
Purple Hyacinth Bean
Pink Hyacinth Bean

I'm hoping to plant a bunch of stuff outside tomorrow. I'm holding off on the tender annuals though. I can't wait! By the way, how do you get the seedlings out of the pot without disturbing them too much? I'm assuming you just turn it upside down and gently shake out the entire pot of plants?

bellarosa: I usually remove the whole blob of soil from the container. I do this either by
1.turning the whole thing upside down and dumping on it's head, then turn upright and cut into chunks with a knife, or
2. cut vertically down the 2 front corners of the milk jug and sliding the whole blob out of the jug, then slice into hunks with a kitchen knife.

If the hunks are small, I plant with a spoon.

I can't remember what I've planted out but at least some petunias, 2 jugs of ruds, amaranthus, larkspur, BBs, nigella, forget-me-nots, digitalis, snapdragons, rose campion, Maltese cross, alyssum, and nicotiana.

Still have lots more to go though, and can't find room for them. I think I'm going to be giving away more than I plant in my yard this year. And I have some that haven't sprouted yet.

Karen

I planted out - 4 o'clocks - lost to frost :gaillardia, CA poppies, amaranth - lost some to frost,
sweet peas - doing great, also cypress vine doing great.

BTW-re CA poppies - one container I dug up small HOS and planted them. The other container, I cut the container, and slid the whole thing out and planted it intact. The latter is doing MUCH better.

My poppies still look invisible, I have to get real close to see them. However, they are definitely alive, so I will leave them and see what happens.
Interesting, I gave some to my friend, (from the same container), she planted them about 2 days later than I did, and hers are doing much better.
I've sowed some more poppies, and will let them get larger before I plant out.
I've also sowed more 4 o'clocks, more cypress (for friends) more gaillarda (for friends).
Actually I just keep sowing things because I've got the seeds, and the containers are already prepared, and I am sure I will find some soul to take them off my hands.

I'm using a different potting soil, I got tired of buying the stuff, and the cheap stuff I was buying dries out REALLY fast, so now I'm trying my own compost to see how that works.

also sowed some morning glory.
would love some hyacinth bean seed if anybody has some laying around that they don't know what to do with! I went to Rutgers plant sale yesterday in the cold windy driving rain just for a hyacinth plant, when they produced it for $5.50 I decided I didn't want to spend that much for ONE plant, and passed it up. Heck, I'm used to getting my plants for free!
I've also thought about ordering some Lady in Red Salvia seeds, but don't feel like waiting, so will leave that for next year. If I see a Salvia plant in my nursery travels, I'll pick it up.
oh, and sowed more amaranth.

still have 11 containers germinating. So far have had very good germination over-all.

ellen

I took vacation this week specifically to plant out. Did well early in the week, then the rains came. Also my 83 year old Mom having health issues again, so I spent one afternoon on her grocery shopping and household chores, another taking her to the doctor, one evening taking her out to dinner, have reservations to take her to dinner for Mother's Day tomorrow... When is it my turn?

Actually supposed to be sunny, dry, and warm today, so hope to make headway on planting out today. The rains return tonight and tomorrow, perfect time to plant, then I'm back to work- vacation over. Ugh! Right now it's only 47 degrees and so foggy you can't see. (Rained again yesterday). I never remember a spring this wet, but hate to complain after last year's drought.

Karen

Karen,
Thanks so much for your advice. This is my first time sowing and I was amazed at how easy it is to do. I WS most of my seeds in 4" pots and a few seeds in plastic lunch bags. The bags worked so well! I just cut the sides of the bag and set out the entire plants. I can't wait to see what grows.

-Evelyn

Wow, some of you guys are very energetic planter-outers!! Anybody else feel a bit behind reading some of these posts? Heck, I've only got 140-odd containers to go! :)

Leecb, how odd that the squirrels are digging up your seedlings. Maybe you should feed them some peanuts or something to distract them? I direct-sowed breadseed poppies this year, somewhere around the first day of Spring, and to my surprise they sprouted a couple weeks after that and are doing great!

Ellenr, 2 years I got some winter-sown CA poppies from littleonefb at a swap. They were in styrofoam cups, just plopped them in the ground. THey grew great, and they have reseeded - true to color - since. Once established they are prolific reseeders. It looks like I've got a little field of CA poppies growing out there along the driveway this year! They seem to like sun, and sandy, very well-drained soil and are quite drought tolerant.

Okay I did make progress yesterday on planting some of the Nicotiana 'Jasmine scented white' into little flats, for the spring swap. :)

I planted out my verbascum violetta a few days ago, most of my snapdragons day and night and a few of my nicotiana fragrant cloud. I also planted out a few hosta and daylilies I got too. I wish I could be planting more out right now while there is still some daylight left, but my knees are killing me. Too much heavy lifting and work has been busy (I'm a housekeeper, lot's of bending down), it's taking it's toll. Should go pop some aleve.

Karen

I am definitely way behind planting out. Some, like my Lupines and Larkspur, are gowing out of their jugs. The only ones I have planted out are Poppies, Marigolds and some Herbs. If it would be dry for more than 1 day I might be able to get some of the others planted. I can see me dong the "Plunk and Run" method here shortly. LOL

Rhonda

The empty-pile got bigger this weekend.
I let out:

Zinnias
More Sunflowers
Larkspur
Calendula
Phlox
Marigolds
Cosmos
Nigella

Plenty more to go, but I have to admit that I'm glad I sowed the way I did this year: 20-24 containers at a time over several weeks. Whenever I get around to planting out, there's only "that many" that are ready. I'll have to remember this next year- that (for me) it works better starting late, and having "succession" plantout sessions.

Never got the veggies started this weekend. Got tired. Had to go lie down...I'm getting old. Need naps.