Thanks, Al, for another well written piece of gardening interest! I've been cutting and forcing late winter/early spring branches for as long as I can remember. As kids, my Dad would take us hiking to look for trees and shrubs with this specific purpose in mind. One of our favorites for cutting and forcing has always been the pussy willow. As I remember, though, we always took this hike a little later than January... sometime in February, I believe it was. I just happen to have a Pink French pussy willow tree/shrub that's marked for a drastic pruning... it will make a wonderful subject for forcing. JoJo, I hate to see you left out... let me see if I can swing a quick shipping your way... I don't know for certain if it would work, but I'd love to send you some forcing enjoyment from the frozen tundra of the north! ;-) Which reminds me... as soon as the weather breaks, I'll have a package for you. I'll email. Well, Al... you've successfully planted the notion that spring is not all that far away, and for those of us sitting under snow and ice, who never quite get used to the long winter season, this is wonderful news! I'm off to find my good pair of shears!

I have a set up similar to Zenmans (though MY basement is nowhere near so neat! impressive!). About six weeks before my last frost date, I start taking cuttings of salvias, tibouchina, durantas, and a few other plants that I want to overwinter. I do it as much because I cannot count on finding new plants every year as for the purpose of saving money. I start the cuttings outside under my deck benches and only bring them inside to the lights when the plants begin to show damage from cold. (It doesn't even have to frost for some things like durantas to be stressed.) I spent $10 a set for shop lights, not counting the bulbs, and bought inexpensive plastic shelving. The shelves and light units are each long enough to hold two flats. Be sure your shelves have slats or are open in some way because you want to hang the lights from chains. Using S hooks, you can then raise and lower the shoplights over your plants. (You'll want extra S hooks.) You'll notice from ZM's photo that he has his plants in trays. This prevents runoff onto the light units below. I bought cheap cookie sheets at WalMart and filled them with a layer of gravel. My basement floor has a drain in it, which is really handy. I just drag a hose into the basement once a week to water and/or feed. I learned fast that once a week water is plenty. And that regular fertilizer is very important. The cuttings are joined in late winter by seeds that I start for my beds. In my climate, if you want color in July and August, you need annuals. With advice from fellow GWers, I have gotten pretty good at the seed thing in just a couple years. Once you get your shelves set up, it's not especially time consuming to care for your babies and it's nice to have plants to work with through the winter.

Hi Edna, I agree with Steve, I also wash my plants and usually do it at night that way there is no way I can get sunlight on the leaves. If you want to look at photos of violets, one of the best places to look is in the photo section of AVSA. I have provided a link for you. Look on the left side of the site and click on photographs. There is a great deal of info in the entire site including growing tips. Good luck with your new plants. Just make sure you isolate any new ones you add to your collection. Fred in NJ Here is a link that might be useful: AVSA

I still feel like I'm behind, though. Probably mostly because I SERIOUSLY cut back on my container count this year. I might have 40-50 perennials out there, and another 24 maybe in other stuff. My usual count is somewhere between 200-400+ I want to do a sale, but iffy on whether or not to do it; people are finicky...I did "ok" last year, but ignorant people snubbed their noses at the small (but full) containers of seedlings (3.50 per jug with up to hundreds of seedlings in it). Ok, so what should I do then? Have my sale in July when everyone's nursery plants are starting to fail miserably? Should I charge 10x as much in July as I would have in May/June in the seedling stage and charge them 3.50 for ONE rud or ONE petunia? (rolleyes). I really don't WANT to babysit containers until July...it's bad enough that I might not get all of my OWN planted out by then, but to have to make SURE that containers don't die...well, mid-July I'm off on other ventures...and when they're MINE..."I'll get to it, or I won't" and either way works. My veggie patch is still under construction (I build borderless raised beds); my onions will be here any day now... I feel like having ordered my toms so late that even a week in April is a lot of wasted germination time. I have mosaic projects not started or finished that I've committed myself to (another forum)...I just feel like I'm not getting anything done and time's a wastin' Maybe I'm just usually "early" and have everything out by now and this "lateness" that I'm feeling really isn't at all.