I also did some spring and summer sowing. I finally got my basket of gold to sprout and then I also did some sweet william. They are doing well and are sitting under a tree. They get a few hours of sun in the early morning then shade the rest of the day. I do not plan to plant out until it cools off. We are in the high 90's now. Do you think these plants will flower this coming spring?

If any of them bloom next year, tht would be icing on the cake. I just have lots of space to fill and I"m trying to spread the work over a longer time period. This way, I don't have so many containers sitting around at the same time, or the rush to get everything planted in spring. I do have a moderately shady bed that I could plant them into "temporarily". But, once they're in the ground, I don't trust myself to have the self-control to move them later.

I am on a stay-cation, 9 days off work, and decided to plant seeds for some fall flowers. Pansys and Snapdragons, I'm not sure what else. We finally dropped down out of the 100s and all this week they expect temps to be in the high 90s. I plan to keep them in full shade until it cools off some. I have never planted fall flowers from seed, do yall think I should wait? (I cant start them indoors)

I could always go with petunias or something else.

Martha..did you do your summer sowing using milk jugs? I don't know if I have corresponded with you about this before or not..but I would love to see if I could start some perennial seeds now that would be ready to transplant by Sept. 15 plant swap. I am afraid I am pushing it too close but I could always start some in peat pots or in 3 or 4 in. nursery pots closer to mid Sept. and direct sow them in my own flowerbeds, so they will bloom in Spring 2013..Does this sound like it would work..I live in Md. outside DC..Zone 6 or 7..depends on which zone map you look at!

HEY Martha,
I don't know about zone 5 babies BUT when I do summer seeds I wait until it cools down in the fall to transplant.
I have successfully transplanted hocks, you just have to water them well until they get over the shock of transplanting. You might lose a few but you can always keep out a few just in case you need to re-plant them.
I would wait until all the ones you mentioned are a few inches tall at least before I transplant. I have made the mistake of transplanting little ones too early and did not have much luck with it at all.
You know we have hotter then Hades summers here, the best luck I had was putting them in a temp bed where they got afternoon heavy shade. IF you do not want to go that route the other way I did was put them in jiffy pots like someone else suggested and I kept them under a tree until I was ready to transplant. I made sure they got watered ever day morning and evening if they were droopy, again hotter then Hades here so they needed a lot of care. I don't know how your weather is up that way but if it is hot, hot, hot I would truly wait on planting out.
I have transplanted a hollyhock that was about 6 inches tall with a lot of growth on it before BUT I had to baby it, that is the trick and making sure you DO NOT disturb that tap root, as long as you don't break it or damage it in anyway transplanting is not that hard. Still a little tricky BUT not impossible. If you can put them in jiffy pots OR make some paper pots I saw somewhere a girl was making square ones that look to be a good size that would be good for the hollyhocks because you could just put the whole kit and kaboodle in the ground when you plant them, ALSO if you don't want to do that then get some of those brown paper lunch bags put about 3 together, inside each other, turn down the top to make a rim and plant in those (instance paper pot no fuss method!) then when you plant IF you need to you can rip a whole in the bottom OR you can IF you are REALLY, REALLY, REALLY careful tear the whole 'pot' away and then plant.
These are the easiest ways I know to not disturb a plant when transplanting and it gives them the best chance at living.

:) Aqua

***Note for the paper lunch bag 'pots' if they are the thin, thin, thin ones I would use as many as I needed to make a stable pot.***

I like to wait until my sprouts have more than 2 sets of leaves, but one of the critical things with summer transplants is that you need to give them time to establish a good root system before cold weather sets in. Here in zone 7b, I can transplant as late as early November for some things - if I were in z5 MI, I would think you would want those babies in the ground no later than the beginning of October; IMO. If your sprouts are still very small by late September, I would plant them anyway, and perhaps try to protect them from drought, critters, etc. until your first freeze. Unless you are going to winter them indoors, you have nothing to lose.

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'll keep the sprouts in their containers and in the shade where I can keep them cool and moist until late September. Then I'll put them where I want them permanently and cross my fingers. We normally have quite rainy autumns, so hopefully the transplant shock will be minimized. I also have plenty more seed. I'll throw some seed down directly around the seedlings, and probably winter sow a few containers as well. We'll see what works!

Martha