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trudi_d

Winter Sowing ~ What to Sow

trudi_d
14 years ago

Decisions! Decisions!

It's easy to choose plant varieties to Winter Sow....you don't even need to know the botanical names of any of the plants you choose. All plants have common everyday names or descriptions that can bring to mind a natural environment, a regional location, or a description of reproductive habit. These names and clue-in phrases will help make it easy to choose which plants you can Winter Sow.

Natural Environment Common Plant Names

Look for names showing natural environments and outdoor locations.

Arroyo

Brook

Canyon

Creek

Desert

Dune

Field

Meadow

Mountain

Plain

Prairie

River

Sea

Swamp

Valley

Veld

Etc.

Some examples are:

Alpine Aster ~ Aster alpinus

Beach Plum ~ Prunus maritima var. maritima

Chaparral Brodiaea ~ Brodiaea jolonensis

Desert Willow ~ Chilopsis linearis

Dune Grass ~ Leymus arenarius

Eastern Bluestar ~ Amsonia tabernaemontana

Gorge Fleabane ~ Erigeron oreganus

Great Lakes Sandcherry ~ Prunus pumila

Hedge Maple ~ Acer campestris

Hillside Gooseberry ~ Ribes californicum

Meadow Checkerbloom ~ Sildacea campestris

Prairie Bishop's Weed ~ Bifora americana

River Hawthorn ~ Crataegis rivularis

Snow Arnica ~ Arnica frigida

Tundra Wild Rye ~ Elymus sajanensis ssp. hyperarcticus

Valley Lupine ~ Lupinus subvexus

Water Locust ~ Gleditsia aquatica

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Temperate Climate Plant Names Indicative of Winter Sowing

Look for names that might indicate an origin in a temperate climate:

Siberian or Siberica

China, Chinese or Chinensis

Polar, Arctic or Arctica

Alpine, Alpina or Alpinus

Oriental or Orientale

Caucasian or Caucasica

Canadian or Canadensis

Russian or Camschatcensis, etc.(indicating Soviet origin)

American or Americana

European or Europaea

Etc.

Basically, you're using geography to match a global region or feature to a plant name.

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Catalogue and Seed Packet Germination Terms Indicative of Winter Sowing

Take a look at a seed catalogue, most will have some sort of notation about a seed's germination requirements, or you'll pick up a few clue-in phrases.

Look for these terms:

Reseeds or reseeding

Wildflower

Will Colonize

Self Sows

Hardy Seeds

Can be direct sown early

Seedlings can withstand frost

Sow outdoors in early Autumn

Sow outdoors in late Autumn or early Winter

Sow outdoors in early Spring while nights are still cool

Sow outdoors in early Spring while frosts may still occur

Weed (such as butterfly weed, joe pye weed, jewel weed)

Needs Pre-chilling (freeze seeds, refrigerate seeds, stratify for x amount of day or weeks)

Needs Stratification

Etc.

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More ideas about Winter Sowing Seed Selection

Think about your own garden, and your neighbors' gardens too.

Do you find plants that have volunteered each spring and shown up as seedlings that you didn't sow? These are very good choices. (let's say that your orange marigolds have returned in Spring as volunteer seedlings.......you can then be pretty well assured that gold, or lemon, or African or French varieties will also reseed for you too, when it comes down to it a marigold is a marigold is a marigold).

Go to your local Botanical Garden and ask the gardeners which plants reseed there. Any plants they mention would be a good choice for Winter Sowing as your local Botanical Garden more than likely has the same climate as you do.

Take a walk at a Nature Preserve near you and observe the wildflowers, the young seedling trees, bushes, vines, etc. All of these plants have germinated and thrive outdoors with only Mother Nature to assist them. All of these plants are excellent choices for Winter Sowing.

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The link at the bottom brings you to this FAQ grouping, each individual link on that page has a subset of links below "Tip". The subset links have related content.

Here is a link that might be useful: What to Sow

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