This was a rough WS year. I only did 32 containers. 31 germinated. The one that didn't germinate was the old packaged oregano. Who cares?

We had extended freezes and now have higher then normal temps with drought. This has been a horrible spring for me and I hope that noobs don't get discouraged.

Here I am 5/29 and still have plenty of things to plant out. I can't do that and monitor the water and work and raise three big kids. I am truly disappointed. I have to get these plants out and will just accept that these will either live or die.

WS is a constant success. That I can live with.

This year I sowed about 400 containers.I have maybe 20 that has not germinated and just a few that are half full of seedlings.Already I have maybe 10 containers of seedlings that have died from my neglect.I still have about a hundred to plant out.It is already so hot here,I have to water twice a day.We are on water restrictions here but I still run around with a water hose trying to keep my new seedlings alive.I have some still taped up.I hate trying to get that tape off too and have found it easier to just cut it open with a knife.I still think though that there is better condesation if the container is taped shut and will continue to do so.Next yr.I am not going to sow so many containers.It is too hard trying to plant that many out.WSing is great and is a 100% winner for me.My gardens are absolutely beautiful from last yrs plants...now got to go get my seedlings planted so I can have more beauty next yr..
moonphase

Well, for me it seems to get better every year. I like what sprouted, and yesterday I took some unsprouted containers and sowed some more seeds that were leftover in the sewing box.

I get a certain sense of personal satisfaction from what's there. I'm far behind in planting out compared to some of you, but that's OK because the heat really only sets in around here in August if at all. Everything is doing fine in the containers and there a light rain watering everything right now.

I wanted lots of Buddleia and Aclepsias and now have lots. I wanted Dictamnus Alba, and now have three. I wanted Cosmos in my gardens again, and now have loads. Snapdragons too - Drippy made me rediscover these. I wanted to try OGs and have some ???? Wrightii thanks to Donn. (Sorry there big fella - the name evades me at this point. Could it be Sporobolus?)

Yesterday I discovered where I had placed the Peegee Hydrangeas which sprouted last year. All four are doing well - so tiny and so cute!

The Baptisia from a couple of years ago looks like it's going to flower. I've never seen these before so it's going to be a treat.

I'm content with how things are going this year. It's all good!

This was a tough year for my wintersowing efforts. Out of 107 containers, about 25 never germinated at all. Things that normally would have done fine (zinnias, cosmos, amaranth, marigolds) were sparse or no-shows. Things that I never tried to WS before (hosta, daylilies, lobelia, foxgloves) sprouted like mad.

I will never indoor sow daylilies again! The winter sown ones were stronger and had great root systems. Here are my two daylily seedling beds, somewhere upwards of 60 seedlings total:

{{gwi:388778}}

{{gwi:355188}}

And I've got some hosta babies to enjoy - here they are repotted from their containers:

{{gwi:388779}}

I probably won't winter sow nearly as much next year, simply because we're hoping to put the house on the market and move. I'll still WS daylilies and hosta, though.

Laurel

I spent a little time outside yesterday, mainly just cleaning things up so I could plant things out.
It hasn't been a good year. Didn't get around to sowing lots of things, then many that did sprout either died off or turned out to be just weeds. :( lol

Bakemom,
I thought you may like to know that I just planted out Coral Bells that I WS'ed last year in a baggie! Been in that baggie this whole time and been tossed about more than a few times. lol Now that it's in the ground, watch it die on me!

Anyway, I've gotten the bed around the front porch planted now. (May have some additions to it later.) And have gotten my raised beds pretty much done up with indoor sown tomatoes, the oregano, parsley and onions from last year are still there (I'm letting the onions go to seed!)
I've got about half a dozen baggies to put into the hummer bed and about 25 more peppers and tomatoes to put into containers.
And I HAVE to start a new bed somewhere for the Irises and lilies that are still in containers! I was thinking of an instant bed, but can't dig the grass up, so may just lay some cardboard down and pile on some topsoil and compost and see if it will stay put long enough for me to put the plants on top! lol
What an end to the long weekend! I'll never be ready for work tomorrow with my sore and aching body...
Cathy

This is my first year of WSing. I've learnt a lot, and will definetly do it again. I will be more pickey about my container choise, no butter,or whip cream tubs, no half gallon milk jugs, or like diggerdee no 2 liter soda bottles, for the same reason. The others didn't hold enough dirt and I was watering them all the time. I realy liked the styrofoam cups, they were easy to plant seeds in, and to plant out. I used the big plastic containers to put them in and it would have worked much better then moving one at a time when we had a freeze in April.
I won't plant many annuals either, it wasn't very succesful for me. I lost most when we had a freeze in April. I want to do more perinnials. I love gardening but my knees won't let me do it as long as I need to, so I had to get help from my DD-in-L, and she doesn't have as much time as she used to . So perinnials seem to be the best bet.
The best thing is I have plants that I would not have been able to get here, or I've not seen them in the stores. I have Kingfisher Daisy's, Poached Egg Plants(Limanthes),Monkey Flower(Mimulus), all are in bloom, and for the first time in at least 3 attempts I have poppy's, that is about to bloom.
I think I planted most of my babbies out to soon, cuz I lost all of my Butterfly Weed, Calendula, Gaillardia(color) Oranges and Lemons, and most of my Larkspur, and Lupin.

I'm very surprised how fast the sprouts grew once they were planted. Most have bloomed too.
I still have Rock Cress to plant out. More Basil and tomatoes then one person could ever use. I'm thinking of putting them out front with a "free" sign. I just can't throw them into the dirt pile. I have Lavender, that I want to keep in the containers till they get a lot bigger, then pot them up.
I had close to 200 containers and about 100 made it. If I do any annuals I'll wait till mid February to start them, only 5 that I started in January germinated out of 50, and I lost maybe half in the freeze.
I had so much fun WSing, just seeing those little sprouts on a cold winter day made the winter a bit more bareable.
Jennie

In a baggie! I have never done that! That's something to celebrate. These "alternative" containers never cease to amaze me. Routine for some, not for others. Cheers.

This was my second year and I think I had better germination last year. I sowed 60 some containers and had quite a few (though I didn't count) with no germination at all. Also
only a few late sprouting columbine
echinacea- one jug each of 3 types, ended up with 3 seedlings
platycodon- 1 seedling
agastache-3 seedlings
butterfly weed- 2 seedlings
nasturtium-none in 2 kinds, a few in 3 kinds
amaranthus perfecta- few seedlings
zinnia- 2 types doing OK, just still tiny
snapdragons- good on 2 types, poor on one type

Those are a few poor results that come to mind. But I did have good results with some things. We have had the same weather as bakemom, late prolonged freeze followed by sudden heat (high 80s since I can remember) and drought.

And since planting out I'm battling critters of every size, shape, and color. Bugs are eating a lot of things. Voles and chipmunks are digging up others. I spend most of my time watering and battling bugs/animals/weeds.

Karen

This was my first year. I did about 35 to 50 containers. I used jiffy flats and aluminum baking pans. I had the best luck with the aluminum pans. I didn't label anything. About half to 3/4 of my containers germinated and survived. I'm happy. I still have tons to plant out. I took the tops off and moved the seedlings to partial shade. I am hoping for the best.

I have taken some of the seedlings and put them in 5 oz and 7 oz paper cups. I've found those easy to get in the ground. I put the seedlings in cups when I wanted to "do something" but it was too cold outside to plant anything.

I have an unheated greenhouse- one of the self-erecting types from fowerhouse. It was a christmas present from DH. GREAT present. It's definitely in the top five ever.

I have had bugs- pill bugs and slugs-invade the paper cups.

Next year:

LABEL - not obsessively, but enough so I can know where the caterpillar host plants are, and which plants need more sun. I think I may have put sunflower seedlings in the shade.

DON'T OVERWATER- after I took the tops off, I lost several seedling to what looks like "damping off." Some of my soil was so saturated, I'll bet that is what kept many containers from germinating.

BE PATIENT- I've dumped several containers with plans to reuse the potting soil after sterilizing it. (Is it enough to let it sit in the sun for awhile?) I think they still might have germinated had I given them more time.

START EARLIER- I didn't do anything till after christmas this year. Now that I have the greenhouse, I think I can be out there earlier.

BE BOLDER- more caterpillar host plants, native shrubs, native irises and other native wetland palnts like button bush.

DO MORE RESEARCH- see above.

:-)

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Yes, the weather was wacky, it seemed like the calendar had slipped sideways and the seasons were a month off; if it stays this way for a few more years I'll have to rethink the Dec 21st kick-off, but I expect the moment I do then the winter will be brutal and early and too long. Yins and Yangs are always what they are--a balance and where something falls away something will surge ahead.

Personally, last Autumn was very difficult for me when my BP skyrocketed and I wound up on my back in bed, zoned out on meds and doing nothing for almost four months. I couldn't get the garden cleaned out until February and so I am still getting caught up with bed preparation. I've got flats on hold waiting for transplant and a back log of a few dozen to finish photographing. I hope to have that finished in a few more days and them transplanted by the end of the month.

I had a wonderful season of seed sharing made possible by so many kind and generous people from this forum (you know who you are ;-) who selflessly shared volumes of their seeds. It made a heavy influx of SASEs so much easier to fill. In 2006 over eighteen-hundred of them came and went through here, this year I've already passed that amount and have requests from schools and colleges to fill and send this summer.

My goal this year wasn't on sowing flats--though I did many it was less than before, and I'm doing less toms this year too. My goal for this season was on expanding the knowledge field--getting the info out to more people who are not on the internet and getting the info to people who might not visit this forum or any garden forums because a six pack of annuals does it for them, they feel they don't need more. But once they know how easy something is to do then they become interested. So this was a public relations year for me--I did TV in Iowa, there were some magazine articles, there was the Earth Day release with About.com, and most recently a large article in the Fairbanks Extension Newsletter in April. All of these articles and events have not brought increased traffic to this forum nor do I think they will because the info reached people who traditionally don't visit forums; but there has been increased traffic to WinterSown.Org which has made AgNIC very happy. I also must give credit to the Winter Sowers who are out there teaching in education venues and credit too for everyone who is spreading the good word. WS still spreads best by word of mouth--it is how interest is generated.

I'm quite delighted that there is much less disbelief than in years before. Winter Sowing Method was added to the USDA/NAL Thesaurus this year which was a further blessing from the USDA. As of now there are still many irons in the fire for Winter Sowing and WinterSown and the best is yet to come.

T

My third year here. While I was away in April, my babies froze, so I am short of cascading Lobelia, Bunny Tail grass and Nasturtium. I sowed much fewer varieties of seeds this year. Seems to have less germination this year too. But I still have way too many seedlings to plant out. I also sowed too many Petunia seeds in one container. The Petunia 'Laura Bush' from trades didn't look like the one in catalog. The seeds from Wildflowerfarms seem true to picture.

And yes, my petunia started to bloom before I planted it out. Way to go Winter Sowing.

And yes, I will sow fewer seeds next winter. I already snatched 4 bags of MG. 4 bags! That's too many. Guess I'd better use up one before winter, huh?

Once again, I overdid myself and had too many containers sown. Thankfully(?) I lost many plants this past winter so garden has plenty of empty spots. Still, while I would not be able to avoid desire to try new plants I am much more understanding how my garden works and able to refuse growing plants I know need more sun than my shady garden can provide- just not worth the effort.
I will be doing fewer perennials- my gardens are full and finding new placements is biggest challenge of whole process.
Will do more annuals for containers. Will start some indoors for early show and WS rest for summer- fall effect.
For the past few years I have been doing mostly perennials and now I can see a new venue open for me. Will collect more of my own seeds, label better and do more trading.
Same as Tiffy, it seems I get better at seed sowing every year. My garden is finally coming together as one whole group and I am pleased with results.

This was my first year also. I am pretty disappointed in the results. I lost some in the April freeze. And some didn't germinate so I have about 1/4 of what I planted. Some of the seeds I got from ebay so that could be some of the problem, I don't know, but overall I am disappointed. I'll probably WS again next year only because by Feb I'm ready to climb out of my skin being stuck inside. Maybe I'll have better luck then!
Roxanne

Roxxanne, don't be too disappointed. My first year didn't go so great either. But each year since has been better, with last year I think being my best (so far). Even this year (my fifth), while having some big disappointments, still produced overall good results and definitely better than anything I could have done indoors. There are lots of things that contribute to failures and successes, some beyond our control - like 60 degree days in January and 20 degree days in March, lol!

Woodenzoo, you brought up a point I forgot to mention. WEEDS!! Yikes, did I ever have a ton of weeds this year! I kept marking down germination dates in my records, and after a few weeks realized that gee, that aster seedling looks just like that sunflower seedling, which looks exactly like that nasturtium seedling - finally it dawned on me that it was all the same stinking weed! I think I have identified it as lambs quarter. And there was a second prolific weed whose ID I'm still working on. Makes me wonder if I got a weedy batch of MG or something, because these two weeds were in every single container - sometimes mixed in with the real seedlings, or sometimes the only thing that germinated, but there they were. Quite aggravating. Not to mention that now my germination records are all screwed up, lol!

Well, I'm glad to see that most of the newbies will be trying again, and that the veterans are letting any failures roll off their backs. This is still the best way to start seeds, imo.

Thanks for the input everyone!
:)
Dee

This was my first year also. I had about 50% germination in the milk jugs and about 95% germination in the gallon baggies. I still have hopes for many of the ungerminated milk jugs since they were the harder to germinate varieties. I'll keep them until next spring and see if anything comes up.

I'm still sowing up a storm and found the baggies are much easier to work with. I fill them with 3 to 4 inches of pro-mix and put them in lasagna pans to keep them stable. After much trial and error I found the Hefty zipper bags work the best. They stay upright with little effort and don't fold over or scrunch into the soil. I will use the milk jugs for early sowing to withstand snow and ice and use the gallon baggies for spring and summer sowing.

I never imagined winter/spring/summer sowing would be so addictive!

Joanne

This was my first year wintersowing and it has been great! I started out all organized and, as spring approached, I completely lost track...dh jumped in and started sowing vegetables and marigolds - my 217 containers were joined by uncounted masses of his. Oh well. Sometimes you just have to wait and see what comes up, right?

Germination rate has been VERY good. I had only a few containers that didn't sprout. And if they had I don't know where I'd put them!

My garden is in its third season and, as I've mentioned too many times before, I'm battling horrible soil (ashtray sand) as well as drought and summer heat and humidity - and that late freeze! I have large flowerbeds because little ones disappear from across the yard and I do like to sit on my front porch and enjoy my "bloomies". So I need large numbers of plants in order to fill and function. Wintersowing has made that possible. How else could I afford great sweeps of color? And how else could I afford perennials when the garden center likes to charge $10 - $24 EACH for them?

I guess my biggest disappointment so far has been Yvonne's salvia - I had such high hopes! It did germinate easily but not in great quantities. The trouble is that since I planted it out it has just sat there. Almost all the other little sprouts have taken off with amazing vigor and speed but not these little ones. I'll keep trying, though. Isn't that what gardening is?

As for containers, my experience has been a bit different than most it seems. I had the worst results with milk cartons. Next time I don't plan to use them at all. The two liter bottles worked FAR better for me. Different strokes, huh?

And I would say that getting a good mixture for planting is important. I talked with a local nursery man who sold me great big bags of what he called "seed starting soil". It has NO fertilizer in it, is very light and fluffy with lots of organic stuff still visible. I had not one single weed in any container! It was easy to wet and held moisture without getting soggy. Great stuff!

Also my 1st year and I thought a success. Out of 200 or so containers, only 20 maybe didn't make it. Like others I started out documenting well but have been laxing in that area lately.

I'm done planting out and have dumped all containers that didn't germ except for 1 lonely Siberian Iris, 2 Baptisia and 2 Japanese Magnolia's. My gut tells me not to give up on them yet. I did 3 soda bottles of Siberian Iris. 1 came up 2-3 weeks ago, 1 LAST FRIDAY so the last one I'm holding out hope for.

What didn't do good for me was wave Petunia's, Clarkia A (only 1 out of 3-4 containers germ) and Blue Fescue.

This was my 1st year for doing any kind of sowing & I did WS and indoors under lights. I'll be doing both again next year. It was so fun being able to play in the dirt in the winter. The only thing I'll change is to do less because the 200 WS & the 200 IS was way too much work.

I had a terrible time this spring with slugs. It was a bigger problem with my late bloomers and slow growers. I had several containers that I saw sprouts only to have them disappear. I tried a few beer traps and recently purchases some iron phosphate based slug bait. Those buggers really did a number on my heuchera seedlings that I was so looking forward to planting. :-(

Oh well...my 37 containers still yielded about 250 plants...and a lot of seedlings went into the compost pile.

- Brent

This was my first year, and at first I didn't really believe it would work at all, so I was pleasantly surprised a got ANY germination. Then I got greedy and wanted germination in ALL of my containers, LOL! I think my germination percentage is around 75%. I finally grew tired of all of the containers on the patio, and think that the sun is too intense there for spring/summer sowing, so I have moved all of my ungerminated containers to the northwest side of the house next to the recylce bins. If I don't see any action in the next couple of weeks, I will do some strategic dumping.

The only real disappointments for me were the sprouts that I lost due to what appeared to be damping off. I think next year I will plant out earlier to prevent this. Everything I have planted out is doing fine, and even though there isn't much growth yet, they look better than they did in the WS containers.

I used mostly 2L bottles, which were fine, but a little difficult to plant out. The biggest lessons for me were making the soil deep enough, and putting the containers in large bins to keep them from blowing around the yard. Oh, and next year I will move the containers to a semi-shaded area sooner, so that I don't fry anything.

My first year too, I'm shocked that I still have things alive!!! Out of about 40-42 containers, I had germination in all but 3, I dumped them this weekend.

Over all, I am pleased. A little concerned about my seedlings being so tiny, but I'll trust ya! I'm all planted out too!

Well, this was my first year wintersowing and it didn't go very well. My sunflowers started growing during the warm-up and got zapped by the late freeze. A bunch of the perennials started growing around then too and didn't get watered as I was busy with other things and wasn't checking on them. So I consider the failure to be mostly my fault. Next year will be easier though since I'll have fewer roses to plant and beds to make. I also plan to do fewer containers so I can keep up with them easier and I'll keep them in the shade so they don't dry out as quickly.

I still had more plants than I knew what to do with so I wouldn't consider it a complete loss. I just planted out a ton of spring sown snapdragons and the winter sown violets should get planted tonight. The winter sown lupines that survived look good and I don't know what I would have done if they had all made it. Some containers had very small sprouts in them so I'll have to wait on those a bit. Hopefully I can keep those watered now that I've got a more managable number of containers left. I have no idea where some of them are going to go since I didn't expect to have that many survive my neglect.

My first year winter-sowing. I was really surprised with how well things germinated (including "tricky" perennials, and seed that I'd kept in the fridge for several years). My big mistake was not having enough depth of soil in my containers... despite reading how important it was. I suppose you only really learn by doing. The other mistake was using wooden stirrers as plant labels. They absorbed the moisture (sounds obvious now) and the pencilled writing became illegible.

Laurelin,
Ditto on what you said, except that the overwhelming germination was on things I either have to wait a long time for, or those things I've never gotten sprouts of in the past two years of WS them. The old standbys were not as successful.
But I am going to be quick about dumping containers this year, maybe by this weekend. I now have two plants that have come up from what were no-sprouters last year ( Coral Bells "Purple Palace" and Celandine Poppy). I figure I have a good chance of further success if I just dump these no-sprouters and forget about them.

Linda

Try to get next year's total down under 700. Got it down almost that far this year from 1000 last year, but I'm still running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Good way to lose weight, maybe!

My first year winter sowing also. I love it and I am defenitely hooked! My favorite part for me is learning what all the different plants look like as seedlings. I've already been looking everywhere I go at plants for seeds! I'm looking forward to trying more unusual plants in the future. Pretty much all of mine germinated except for the sea holly. I'm hoping the Yvone's salvia grows and blooms for me as I enjoy the thought of carrying on seeds/flowers through time and wish that I could go back and collect all of my Grandmother's wonderful flower seeds! Things I would do differently would be to really look at the seeds of each plant that I'm sowing and move somewhere with more land and much much more sun!! Thank you trudi and everyone who sent me seeds!! Isamae

This was my first year winter sowing. I love it. Planting when there is snow on the ground gave me such a happy feeling of hope for spring instead of dread at how long winter would last. I am disappointed that the black eyed susan's didn't germinate but I have some from plants I dug up from an abandoned garden last summer. My grandson accidently kicked over the container that had my Marguerite daisies and I have no germination of them. Not many columbines but a few....that's good. And my pratense geraniums didn't germinate. But oh my goodness I have hundreds of snapdragons, agastache, foxgloves (dwarf red and foxy) alyssums, and tons more. I can't name them all. I lost the names of three jugs but as they have germinated I have figured them out (thanks for the help with that). I am having trouble finding the time to plant things out but I'm in Maine and I still have cool spring weather to deal with so all will be fine there. My husband works as the head mechanic in a garage so I was able to get as many windshield washer jugs as I could ever want which were really great as I didn't have many milk jugs. I learned that it is not necessary (and somewhat foolish) to plant every seed in every package about halfway through planting. Last weekend I was able to take seedlings to my daughters in NH and CT which made them both happy and made me glad I had so many to share. This has been a wonderful and happy experience for me and I intend to continue for as long as I garden. Thank you, Trudi and all of you for sharing all of your knowledge and experience.
And yes....I am still planting seeds. Tomorrow I am going to plant pink for get me nots that I found at wally world.
;*) Bonny

Yep, Linda, I really did it: I dumped out all those unsprouted containers last weekend! I used the soil to amend a small bed that was in need of some TLC - heaven only knows what will sprout there now that I've dumped all those containers there. I might be playing "name that seedling" if those containers finally DO sprout. But I'm so proud of myself for mostly cleaning off that patio. I've got a dozen containers left with small sprouts that I'm giving another week or two to get some size (and to give me time to think of a place to PLANT them, LOL).

Laurel

"...I learned that it is not necessary (and somewhat foolish) to plant every seed in every package..."

LOL, I learned that my first year too! At least you figured it out halfway through sowing, Bonny. I didn't realize it until I was standing there with thousands of seedlings and nowhere to plant them!

:)
Dee

highalttransplant, you saved me some typing... ditto what you said, 'cept I didn't get quite the 75% germination, and I've already started the strategic dumping because I haven't seen some parts of my deck in months and I think it needs some drying out. I too am still planting out, taking it a few containers at a time.

Next year I will limit myself to 2L bottles and milk jugs for containers only. And a cheap wood burner is way better than pliers, a nail, and a candle for burning holes in plastic. ;-)

I will not plant so much next year, I swear. Will stick to the tough stuff like echinacea and their kin, hosta (I don't mind mutts), and will continue with tomatoes again next year (only 3 types germinated for me this year, but that's probably all I need for a first year). I really do need to rein in my enthusiasm *quantity wise*. But this is definitely a beautiful thing.

Terri

"...I learned that it is not necessary (and somewhat foolish) to plant every seed in every package..."

Ahhh. But where fools rush in Winter Sowers follow to snatch their recyclables.

This was my 1st year also wintersowing. I planted about 37 containers (mostly milk jugs, some baggies) with about 137 varieties of flowers, mostly perennials. I had about 73 germinate, and still have some to plant out! I am very pleased with my results!
I will probably only use milk jugs next time and keep searching for a good soil. I tried some soil with fertilizer and thought there was too much green stuff(not seedlings!) by the time I planted out, but no weeds. The cheaper soil had no green, but weeds. I live in a small town, and sometimes I have to buy whats available. Usually once I want to do something, I don't want to wait for this or that! lol.
Some seedlings I lost to a surprise snow storm and freeze (about 4 days in the -20's!) Some seeds I think I should have waited to set out. I'm learning! But like I said, I am very pleased with my results!
Now I'm just hoping I didn't plant out too soon. Plus the pesky robins keep digging for worms where I moved mulch to plant my seedlings and they dig up my seedlings. I have also discovered black aphids on my mock orange bush in front of my house and am hoping that they do not find my flower beds. I've never noticed them before, so I don't know if this is my first year with them or not. Wish me luck!