So how does this look? The mini greenhouse is held down with tent stakes and bungee cords. At one point I was thinking I should seal up the bottom maybe by piling up some mulch to keeo out drafts but now I figure heat rises and we are wanting some cold in there anyway. The clear tray to the left of the seed tray is just the cover removed - I figure greenhouse in a greenhouse was overkill. The clear tray on the second shelf is filled with water to keep it humid in there - or maybe that isn't necessary. I have Butterfly Weed, Blanketflower and Rock Soapwort in my first tray. I plan on also starting catmint. Then in a couple weeks (closer to last frost) some annuals like cypress vine, snapdragons, cosmos, alyssum, mexican sunflower, etc. Or is there no reason I couldn't start those now? Here is a link that might be useful: My mini-greenhouse

To quote from Bill Cullina, who wrote a book on propagating native plants of the northeast, and other parts of North America, "Many species will recieve adequate stratification if placed outside before mid-February in New England." Since most of us in Canada are in colder zones than that, WS is not over yet for us. Many native plants need only 30-60 days of 4 degree C. or cooler weather to germinate. Some need 90 days or more and some don't need any. The only time-consuming part of WS is figuring out which seeds are which. If one consults several different germination guides, the information given is often conflicting. That's when I "hem" and "haw" and try to make up my mind when to sow for optimal success. I wish that more of these germination guides were in better agreement. I'm a beginner and I need all the help I can get. Just don't confuse me.

I think what you do will depend on how many seeds you're planning to plant! When I direct sow snaps I just take the dry seed heads and shake them over the mulch where I want more, but there are HUNDREDS of seeds when I'm doing that! Some will come up and some won't--but I definitely don't get hundreds! My mulch is "wearing down" too, so it's not nearly as thick as yours! But I also have snaps, some intentionally sown, some naturally sown, come up in my rock mulch which has landscape fabric right under the rock--as a matter of fact the snaps in the rock mulch when I moved in here is where I got my "original" supply of seed that I now scatter other places! So if you have a "significant" quantity of seed I'd recommend just sprinkling some of it over the mulch and then lightly pat or stir the mulch a bit to be sure some of it falls all the way down to the soil. If you have just a few seeds I think I'd recommend pushing some of the mulch back and then putting the seeds on or close to the soil. I'm not sure, but I don't believe a 3" mulch will interfere with them coming up. I don't grow annual bachelor buttons, so not sure, but from what Cat said I suspect they could be handled the same as snaps. And I don't grow these either, but I'm pretty sure Cosmos could be dealt with the same way! I don't do mixes because when something comes up you don't know if you're looking at a weed or a plant you want! In the past when I did try mixes I had some things come up that I had to grow all summer trying to figure out what they were--and they DID turn out to be weeds! When sowing individual types of seed you can have a pretty good idea what it should look like so you know pretty quickly if the "right" thing is coming up. With perennials you wouldn't usually want a "bunch" of them coming up here and there, so I recommend winter (or summer!) sowing those in separate pots and then planting them where you want them after they've developed a good root system. [When I winter sow, BTW, instead of using big jugs I sow my seeds in individual pots--8 oz. styrofoam cups, so when the roots grow down to the bottom of the pot I can just knock it out and plant it without having to transplant them at some point!] I have a sheet of Colorado Native perennials we compiled when I was at Paulino's, but it's a whole page, single spaced, and I don't have time to retype the whole thing here! If you come to a swap I'm at and want to see it, remind me and I'll bring it along. (I brought all my info sheets along to some of the first swaps but nobody seemed interested so I don't bring them anymore unless I know somebody wants to see one or more!) But is there any particular reason why you're looking for natives? Regarding pollinators, if you just have a nice mix of different flowers (and veggies) so some are blooming all summer you should have lots of bees around. One thing I happen to remember that bees seem to love are the upright sedums like 'Autumn Joy'. When I'd be selling those things it seemed like the flowers were always covered with bees! And my Agastache seems to attract a lot too, tho that could just be because there are SO many flowers! And Agastache is good for attracting hummingbirds too--or any other tubular shaped flowers, especially red or pink--but hummers will go to other colors too once they're in the area. That's all I can think of right now! Hope some of it might be helpful! Skybird

Many types seeds do well sown in late winter and early Spring 'winter sown'. Those seeds that might be problematic would be those that require a long moist chill before they will germinate - some trees, shrubs, and even a few perennials come to mind. You could check the seeds you'd like to sow here: Clothiers Germination Database If you have seeds for plants that show they need several months chill, those could be iffy sown too late. But if the average of your day and night temps are approximately 40F, your weather should be cold enough....My entire winter can average out to about a wet 40F ;) and winter sowing works here.