Pics of my WS Successes - Year 1

15 years ago

I finally figured out how to post photos and wanted everyone to see my winter sown sprouts! I can hardly believe these were all tiny seedlings in the spring!!

Cosmos 'Antiquity'

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Unknown snapdragon and mystery flower/plant

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Scabiosa 'Beaujolais Bonnets'

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Achillea 'Cassis'

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Nasturtium, Dusty Miller and trailing lobelia

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Zinnia 'Highlight'

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Black Eyed Susans and Flowering Tobacco

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Profusion Cherry Zinnia

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Nepeta 'Select Blue'

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Zinnia 'Oklahoma Pink'

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Geranium 'Bill Wallis' finally bloomed!!

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Burgundy Celosia - looks great but the deer like it too!!

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Yvonne's Salvia - the neighbors are asking for seeds!!

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Clary Sage 'Blue Denim'

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Sweet Alyssum

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Thanks to you all! You inspired me!

Laura

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Comments (23)

shasta_2008
15 years ago
Wow, everything looks great and it looks like you really took your time planting. Thumbs up to you!
caroline_2008
15 years ago
Your flowers are beautiful, Your camera takes great
pics. Keep them coming!! Happy gardening , caroline
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Northerner...just read your post and seeing as it's a little past 1AM I'm counting the hours until I can get out to the shed to check my bags of Miracle Gro and see what the bags say! I'm bereft of knowledge with nomenclature of "dirt" but am learning fast...usually when I think I've got things covered and someone points out what may be a flaw in my master plan...LOL. Sorry for the "flowery" language...I'm a little punchy right now. After a full three days of turning over packed soil down to 18", chopping out grass & roots, amending and planting "1 gal. starter plants" what was supposed to be a 10'x10'x9' Butterfly Garden ended up being more like 20'x20'x15'...as we can all see my powers of estimation are not to be overestimated! Although it did stand me in good stead since I bought way too much fencing to keep out the deer, rabbits, groundhogs and everyone else who will want to eat my garden down to nubs in the spring...LOL. My poor little size 9 tootsies were numb by 5PM when I finished since it was a very cloudy, windy 43 degrees here at midday but it had to be done. Finish bulbs this weekend and then get ready for Thanksgiving. Thank goodness so many posters on this forum have said it's fine to wait til Dec. and beyond to WS! Gotta plan on more "body insulation" for really cold months. I decided to use the moisture retentive potting "mix" or whatever it is for all the bulb containers I have to finish this weekend. A few local nursery people told me not to worry about bulbs getting "wet feet" from moisture retentive property so I'll use it up for that. They were also the ones who told me they used it for their "container plants" which is another thing I might have needed to clarify but that's water over my dam or under my bridge by now. You're absolutely RIGHT...the distinction between Potting "Soil" and "Mix" didn't even register in my mind. Since I'm heading out tomorrow, finally, to grab the bags of my WS "planting medium" I now know I have to look for potting MIX and not SOIL. I had no idea everyone was using "soilless seed starting mixes" that are sterile. I thought I was just going to use very high class DIRT...LOL. Thank you big time for pointing out the distinction. Still haven't ordered any seeds yet. Checked out the Park Seed sale and they're out of anything I might have wanted. Haven't looked in Lowe's or Home Depot yet for seeds and didn't even know they carried them since haven't been frequent visitor to their gardening centers until this year. Everything in both stores has been "cast out" to make room for all the holiday things. Some in the forum have mentioned SwallowTail & HardyPlants as to dependable sources and more I can't remember. I have to maintain some degree of decorum in ordering seeds so I don't end up with way too many plants and nowhere to put them. Then again, after reading one winter sower's experience with losing all her little ones the first year I shouldn't be so cavalier as to think that will be a problem! Planning on WSing natives as much as possible to fill out Butterfly Garden but not being a purist at this early stage I'll go with non-natives if I need to. Want to duplicate few of gallon size plants I already put in for greatest effect in terms of "masses of color" since butterflies apparently can't see individual plants too well. Between the soil, sun, height, spread and now the visual acuity of butterflies is just another little detail but I just couldn't wait to start the garden! Also want to WS things for spring and summer containers since most of ground here is rootbound and can't penetrate it even when jumping on spade. Had to use an ax to break up small areas I eked out for couple "land based" projects I've done. Thanks again for the info...much appreciated. Before I go to get my potting MIX tomorrow morning there's a clearance on all leftover perennials & ferns at a local nursery that I've got to stop at just to see if there's something ready to plunk into that Butterfly Garden now. If they work fine...if not there's always my WS babies to count on if I play all my instructional cards right. I keep reading the FAQs over and over and didn't even notice the soil versus mix thing. I've got leaves spread out all over the yard drying out from recent rains so I can fill the fenced in Butterfly Garden to 6-8" which is what nursery from which I bought gallon plants suggested. Thanks again.
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nikkineel
15 years ago
Gorgeous!
proudgm_03
15 years ago
Absolutely beautiful! Congratulations on your winter sowing!
laura_in_cinti
Original Author
15 years ago
Shasta,

Thanks! I had to take my time. Hubby decided to completely rebuild the deck and so I held off planting since his project was supposed to take only ONE weekend! LOL, it took all summer.

So at the beginning/mid July, I began crowding everything that was still alive in one long bed along one side of the yard. I was SO worried that some of the plants wouldn't grow or flower because they had been in their containers for so long. But they came out great anyway!

Winter sowing is great! I'm already planning for next year.
agirlsgirl
15 years ago
Love the pic of the Yvonnes Salvia! Congrats! You have really had a great first season,love to see your second! :)
mnwsgal
15 years ago
Great success! The mystery plant with the snaps is silene. It will self sow as will the snaps.
floodthelast
15 years ago
Wow everything looks great. I can't wait to have a first year to report on too. You give me hope for more blooms the first year.
kqcrna
15 years ago
Wow, Laura, very pretty flowers.

The snaps are a beautiful shade of pink. If you leave them in the ground, they might overwinter for you. Some, but not all, of mine do. They're good reseeders, too, if you leave some seeds on the plants.

Your Yvonne's Salvia are winners, too. How big did they get for you? I've not managed to get giant ones. They were heavy reseeders for me, too, even though it seemed I collected every seed to save/share.

Karen
laura_in_cinti
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks everyone!

Mnwsgal - thanks for the ID! I've been looking all summer!

Karen, I love those snaps too. I'm thrilled to hear they might overwinter and as I haven't collected any seeds, I hope there are babies in the spring.
My Yvonne's salvia is about 3'-3.5' tall. At first I thought they wouldn't grow, but we had such a nice and cool summer they just jumped up! I haven't collected seeds yet. They haven't looked 'done' yet.

Every time I show off the garden, people invariably ask about the Yvonne's salvia! It's a real show stopper.

Laura
lillyjane
15 years ago
Very pretty, I really like the profusion cherry zinnia. This was my first year WS also, ain't it great?!? Thanks for sharing.
Jan ")
catankgirl
15 years ago
Thanks so much for sharing your pictures, I love them all! Can you tell me where you got your seeds? Particularly the Scabiosa and Geranium Bill Wallis? I've been wanting those plants and yours look so good!
laura_in_cinti
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks Catankgirl!

The scabiosa seeds came from Select Seeds and the Geranium Bill Walls seeds came from Specialty Perennials.
ollierose
15 years ago
Great job! This will be my first year winter sowing. I have become so inspired by everyone's success and learned a lot from failures. Counting down the days to winter sowing!

Diana
carrie630
15 years ago
Wow - you REALLY did a fantastic job... newbie no more!

Carrie
lisa_neenah
15 years ago
Amazingly beautiful. This winter will be my first trying wintersowing. If I do have as well as you I'll be pleased.
liz_h
15 years ago
Gorgeous! I had been wondering what to do with the Dusty Miller seed I have. I see now that I'll use it with nasturtiums.
tndandelion
15 years ago
Those are all beautiful, Lauren!
tiffy_z5_6_can
15 years ago
Ooooooh.... Aaaaaah... Better than fireworks!

The Achillea and the Clary Sage caught my eye. The Achillea is going to be a show stopper next year, and the sage, well, it's going on my list. :O)

Just wonderful colours. You are a good gardener!
rosepedal
15 years ago
Hi Laura,
I love the scabosia and the alyssum. That combo is great. Thanks I never thought of using my thosands of pine needles for mulch. I am gonna do that. Thanks for sharing your wonderful garden with us. Barb
velsgarden
15 years ago
Wow,this will be my first year ws and I hope mine turn out like yours.They are just beautiful.
MissMyGardens
15 years ago
Laura, everything is just stunning!

I'm crossing Celosia off my list since your deer like them.

When am I going to stop counting on "resistant" anything when trying to plan what to sow and grow?

You're one heck of a gardener...tell me this wasn't your first year at any gardening and not just wintersowing...lie if you have to so I feel better...LOL.

I have 1 out of 50 Cosmos left after critters finished them off. It's in the mailbox bed and it's literally over 7' tall. Thought it would just be a green stalk but it's got buds slowly opening. I'm hoping I see at least one bloom before a frost kills it off. Your Antiquity are beautiful.

Great colors and clarity of pics is tremendous.

Thanks for sharing!
laura_in_cinti
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks everyone, you all make me feel so good!

Newbie in NJ, don't cross off the celosia...they still look great DESPITE being chewed on. You can't even tell until you get up close because they grow so densely the deer just can't keep up with the plants! I'll be growing them again next year, definitely! I had the same problem as you with most of my cosmos - except for a few bunches I had planted in front of some bushes. I guess the bunnies were too scared to get too close to whatever might jump out of the bushes to munch on them.

Historically, I've not really been much of a gardener until about five years ago, but even then all of the stuff was store bought. Year before last, I tried to grow plants from seeds but it didn't work well. Then I found winter sowing and voila, I have a garden full of wonderful plants!

All the nice plants in my garden are there thanks to all the folks who shared their experiences with me through this forum!

Thanks again!

Pics of my WS Successes - Year 1

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