If you have the biennial Sweet William (dianthus barbatus), you can sow them now and you'll probably get flowers next spring/summer. You can wintersow them too, but you will most likely have to wait a year for them to flower. The perennial dianthus (usually called some kind of "pink" - maiden pinks, cottage pinks, etc.), you can winter sow; most of them will give some flowers the first year, but will definitely show off in years to come. That's been my experience .... PV

Melissa, Sweet Williams generally will not bloom in their first year. Depending upon where they are and how your winters are, they might not even "die" off completely--I think mine were green all winter, but I would put the pot under the dripping gutter if it was really dry (note to self: do NOT leave it there if there is a downpour...), and are getting ready to burst into bloom. I'm not sure of the variety, and blooming habits may be different from one to the next, but mine typically bloom all season. For the record, they will be nice green, but you should probably add some color where you are planting these. They will come up and have a bit different leaf next year. I think I unintentionally sowed about a million Sweet Williams last year, and at least half of them are coming up... Either SW, or petunias; I'm not sure which yet! I'm leaning towards petunias; either way, I'll know in a couple weeks and will be able to intersperse if it's all SW with some INTENTIONALLY WS petunias! Expect color next year (sorry!).

These are beautiful! From my own garden: I sowed "Tall Deluxe Mix" once. That was in 05/06 WS season. They have successfully reseeded since then, so I have never had to re-sow them. I literally get about a cup of seed collected from these, and still plenty left to shake in the area to reseed. Here they are blooming for the first time in '07: ...and last year: How tall are these other varieties? I think my TD mix is 24.

Hi have loads of Mullein (Verbascum Bombyciferum) and mixed colours of Dwarf Sweet William (Dianthus Barbatus) seeds to swap for anything interesting. Any takers?