As far as I know, anything that will grow in your zone can be wintersown. Most people start off with perennials, and a little later move their way to annuals. Last year I had great success with snapdragons. I waited until the end of January (in zone 5) and they started germinating toward the end of February. Their blooms lasted until the end of November. Check out the FAQ and/or wintersown.org, and if you have more questions ask away. The vets here are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Good luck

Hi ambbutterfly,
Welcome to WS.
Please check this seed list to see what you can WS.
Also check out the data base of your area to see the success rate. Look around the wintersown.org and Winter Sowing FAQ. There is a wealth of information at both places. When you are through reading, :-D, and still have questions, come back here and ask away. Any questions will be answered pronto. :-)

Good luck. :-D

Well I am in zone 6b and winter sow both perennials and annuals. I do the perennials first and then my annuals. I think some people wait on sowing the annuals simply because if they happen to sprout up during an unexpected warm spell the later they are sown the less likely they are to die in a really hard freeze. Others don't even worry about that and sow both whenever they feel like it! I have so much to sow I can't get it all done at once so I start with perennials but that's just me!

gardenluv,
I've sown pretty many perennials already and just sent away for some seeds from J.L. Hudson and Prairie Moon Nursery. So I should have more to sow in a few weeks. :) Yeah, just what I need, more plants! LOL My neighbors will soon think I've lost it. Ha. I'm so glad to hear that you had success wintersowing snapdragons. I will ws the seeds that I collected from my plants a couple months ago. I think I'll sow them in about a month. If you're in zone 5 and sowed them in January, I'm confident that mine will be alright too. I would assume that they don't mind being snowed on then after the plants are growing.

pitimpinai,
Thanks for the welcome and for those links! :) I will be sure to check them out. I don't know why but I didn't think to look for a FAQ page. Duh! Ha, well, it's good that you could point me in the right direction. I hope I'll have time to do my wintersowing after I am done with my homework of doing all that readying. ;-) I will absolutely start right away...I love to read about plants and look through seed/nursery catalogs and have ordered some seeds. I look forward so much to planting that I called our local Walmart and asked when they would get their seeds in. :-D (Btw, I was told probably in another week or two).

ghoghunter,
I guess you and I are in the same zone, except I'm not sure if I'm in 6a or 6b. The map I found online didn't have a's and b's, just the numbers. Since I now know that it's okay to ws annuals, I'm going to do like you and sow all of my perennials and then ws my annuals. I have more perennials to sow than annuals and already sowed probably 3/4 of my perennials (none of my annuals, of course) and will be sowing some more perennials in another few weeks after I receive them in the mail. I still want to buy some red zinnias at Walmart or Lowe's when they get their seeds. I don't live too much on the wild side, so I think I'll wait another month to sow my annuals. :-D I just wonder why they saw on the packets to wait until danger of frost has passed to sow the annuals outside? Maybe the seed companies should read this forum. :) My list of perennials is fairly long and I don't want to bore anyone, but my annuals list only consists of zinnias, blue vervain, tropical milkweed, and hmmm...I know I have others but can't think of them right now.

Thanks to all of you for your great help!

ambbuterfly,
Have you checked the Seed Exchange and Winter Sowing Exchange? Look for offers for SASBE. Search "newbie seed project" in this forum or at wintersown.org for free seeds/SASBE too. You'll get plenty of seeds for the cost of postage and some bubble envelopes. No need to buy any seeds.

Email me too if you like. I am hopelessly behind with my seed cleaning this year, but will get going and mail you some.

There's also a "Sponsor a Newbie" thread on the Round Robin forum. Sign up there with your plant interests (and list things on your want list on your member page), zone, etc and someone with similar things can Adopt you (provide a bunch of seeds for postage).

They put that "after danger of frost" on the commercial packs because they're a bunch of sissies!!!! lol!!!

kilngod;

Where do I find the Round Robin Forum? So new to WS that I am having growing pains. Got some wonderful seeds from the great people here but could always use help with this new addiction.

Ted

pitimpinai,
I haven't looked on any exchanges mainly because I'm afraid that I might get too bogged down with too many seeds and if I would contact someone, I'm not sure if they'd want the few I have to give away. I did have more, but I think my bag that I had most of my perennial seeds in must have gotten thrown out in the Christmas frenzy. Fortunately, I had already sown mostly all of those types of seeds and was keeping some to trade, but I think it's gone now. So if I would see something that someone has that I can use (I'm looking for very few remaining things at this point), I would have to send the person a sasbe and probably wouldn't be able to do a trade unless they'd happen to want one of the few kinds of seeds that I have here that didn't find their way into the trash (or whatever happened to those perennial seeds). I will have to make up a list of a few things I'm still looking for (can't think right now because I'm half asleep) and look on people's lists to see if they might possibly have something that I'm still looking for. I know some things that I'm still looking for (wild black cherry tree, hackberry tree, wafer ash) wouldn't fit in a bubble envelop. ;-) I'm interested in both garden flowers and trees since there are butterflies whose caterpillars eat tree leaves instead of plants in the garden. Anyway, I'll have to take a look around on here and see things.

kilngod,
Now there's another thing I didn't know, about the 'sponsor a newbie' thing. I think that is so nice! I wish I were more organized so I could sit here right now and type up my want list, but I have my notes scattered here and there and I'd have to round them up to know exactly what I'm looking for yet. I think that you've come to the right conclusion, that the seed companies are a bunch of sissies! :-D

Thanks again for the help. :)

Here is the link to the Round Robin forum. there you will find the Sponsor A Newbie thread -- actually 2 - the first one filled up (maxed out at 150 posts and GW closes it down), and the second one has just started. The first one is likely on page 2 by now, but you can see "how it goes" better there, what people posted, etc. Then sign up on the newer thread.

Your wants can be as general as:

"Anything to attract hummers and butterflies"
"Tropical-like things, cannas, lillies and such"
"I love all kinds of daisy-shaped flowers"
"I like spikey flowers and odd-colored leaves"
"Herbs of all kinds"

Or you can list a bunch of plant names.
:)

Here is a link that might be useful: Round Robin Exchange Forum