Thanks for the responses - Bringing the greenhouse indoors is easy because it is light. Here is a link to the product: http://www.gardenandponddepot.com/199-alpine-4-tier-portable-greenhouse-planter.html got it at Home Depot for $25 but it's the same thing...) I started the seeds yesterday in jiffy pots with starter soil. I gave in today after reading other posts and now have a pending order for a flur. light to use... I've always in the pas waited til 1st week of april and just started all seeds in the ground and let nature do the rest. I am just itching to get started this year, so i did the greenhouse thing. I'm hoping I get away with cutting some corners...

I'm in Utah. My last killing frost on average is last week of April, but the mean seems to be later, maybe 2nd week of May, with a least 5 killing frosts, on memorial day.--wiped out my entire tomato plants a few years ago. learned lesson: don't plant all your plants at the same time, which means don't start all your seeds at the same time. it is getting close to being to late for flowers, such as viola, pansies, carnations. It doesn't mean they won't grow, just you'll be setting them out a couple of weeks later than everyone else--so look for "hardy" annuals--we are coming close to the end. Half-hardy are fine to start now. --house plants, in general, any time that you can provide the right germinating conditions.-- also, it's getting a bit late for Begonias, but you can go with some that are early bloomers and they maybe still do well. The problem with the tender annuals, that take a long time to grow to transplant size from seed, is to give them enough light to keep from getting leggy. --Begonias, can't go out until after frost, but can take 5 months from seed to get to setting out time. Most cool weather vegetables, onions, spinach (who eat's that? ummm, I do), can be started now. If outdoors, plant when soil is dry enough that when you dig a little up and squeeze it into a ball, with you hand, it will crumble, when you open it. If you plant when the soil is wet, you are asking for big trouble as it will act more like concrete than dirt, as it dries out--planting when too wet, runins the "tilth" of the soil. You can grow some spectacullar onions if you start them from seed, indoors, then transplant out as soon as the soil will allow. --If they grow too tall, under lights, just grab some scissors and cut them back, like you would mowing the lawn. Most people grow onions from "sets." These are tiny "onion bulbs" that were started, then dug up, forced to go dormant, then are sold the next season to plant out. While this may give you a head start, it's been my experience that the best tasting and also largest onions come from those where the growth has not been stopped and started. If you like sweet onion, ones you can almost eat like an apple (great on hamburgers) Utah Sweet Spanaish and possibly Vidalia work in zone 5. The secret to successful onions is varieties require different amount of daylight. So, a short-day onion will not do well in zone 5, because the farther north (northern hemi-sphere) you go, the more daylight you get in the summer months. So, you look for a long-day onion. Unfortunately, the sweet, & I do mean sweet onions are notoriously bad for storing. But try some onion seeds, start a few now, a few more each week for the next month, that way, you should have enough to make a staggered harvest in the Fall. Tomatoes, I don't start until the 1st of April. That's because they require no frost, but they also do better, as contrary to many people who buy them at grocery stores think, to be set out when they are small--say 6" or so. If you set out a large tomato plant it will just sit there and sulk most of the summer. So, start a few seeds, four weeks before the last killing frost, a few seeds after, and a few, just in case we really get hit with late snow. You also need to decided what kind of tomatoes to plant--determinate, which only grow so tall (they produce most all the fruit around the same time, which is perfect for canning, but not so good for eating, unless you want to be eating 10 tomatoes every day for two weeks, then nothing); the other category is "Indeterminate." These do not grow to a certain height, they just keep going and produce fruit all along the way. If you want an extended harvest, this would be the best kind to start from seed. --their is one other kind of hybrid which is sort of a cross between determinate & indeterminate, that's a good choice too. Oh, with tomatoes, when you start from seed, you can get ones that rippend very early and have almost all sugar (lack tomato "bite") to ones that ripen very late and are extremely full flavor. Among the latter are your heirloom varieties--they are not hybrids (you can't replant hybrid seeds and expecct to get the same plant, but open-pollinated --heirloom-- type you can save seed and replant). If you are going to go for a heirloom, just try one or two plants, but they need to be started now. Since some take as long as 120 days to maturity! for bell (sweet) peepers. They are like tomatoes and have to be set out when there is no chance of frost, or even the temp. dropping below 70 degress. These also take about 6-8 weeks to get to transplant size, while most tomatoes, take four weeks. So although you set out the plants at the same time in the garden, the peppers have to be started before the tomatoes--mid March, where I am in my zone 5. that's the secret to starting seed when it's not to late. You have to find out the average date, for the last killing frost and the last date of the killing frost. Take a happy medium and count backwards from there how many weeks it says the seed information say they need to grow to get to setting out size. Planting from seed is great fun. You get to watch them grow, damp off kill everything, or have perfect plugs for transplanting, plus you get to choose the variety that work in your garden--not for the general area. For me this is especially important, because what other people have success with, totally fail at my house. No, not too late to start from seed. Just get the date you want to set them out and count backwards, that will tell you. --I know, long winded I am. But just trying to help. Wish you great fun and success.

The "flowers" causing the problems aren't on the ground, they're in the air. Japanese Cherries, Dogwoods, Bradford Pears, Red Maple, Silver Maple, Tulip Poplar, Loblolly Pine. All of these are in various stages of flowering right now. I've seen some oaks leaf out but I've not seen the "flowers". Sweetgum is said to be highly allergenic.

Ruth and Pam, after re-reading your post, Pam, and seeing you got the penstemon from JoAn, I did a research on Brazos and Gulf Coast penstemon and find they must be the same...............can anyone verify this for me?? I became interested because the penstemon I have came from a brug cutting event when JoAn brought seeds to share, and someone must have lost part of theirs by my back gate because many of the penstemon plants came up there. When I posted to ask about it, it was identified as Brazos Penstemon................