Hi! I'm very interested in some of these seeds, but I'm just starting to get into seeds. Are there any tricks to having good success with these? I'm interested in all of the seeds listed. Specifically, the Larkspur, butterfly weed, Peony Poppy (single red are fine, as well), and Gas Plant. Do you know if the Cleome self-seeds? Or do you sow it directly into the ground in the spring? I've thrown some zinia seed around the vegetable garden years ago, started some columbine seed this year & had a couple of other successes, but don't have the time or patience needed for high-maintenance seeds! :)

Is it OK to leave light on 24 hours per day till they get more growth? Yes, you can tho 16-18 hours is considered best. Also keeping them under the lights rather than moving them to the window will help keep them from being spindly. Going to the window is a step backwards for the plant. Lights should be no more than 2" above the tops of the plants. Also, will I be helping these plants by pinching? Depends on the plant. Honestly, most things don't require any pinching and tomato plants should definitely NOT be pinched. It isn't a health issue for the plant but simply an appearance fix for the gardener and it's need is purely optional. If something is long, leggy, lanky, droopy as a result of too little growing light then transplant it deeply instead of pinching (unless it is a bulb or rhizome) and increase the light it gets. NO pinching: definitely not vegetables (exception noted below), woody single stem plants, tomatoes, peppers, fall flowering plants or shrubs, morning glories, vining plants, some rose varieties, anything grown from a bulb or rhizome YES pinching: (optional only, not required) geraniums, begonias, fuchsias, snap dragons, ivy, coleus, house plants, members of pumpkin/squash family that are the vining varieties only after well established in the garden - more female blooms develop on the side shoots. Dave

Carol, Oh, hear, hear! I have recently been meeting quite a few Italian gardeners who wanted to see the garden, and it's been fun; now to get to know our first American visitors. Daisy, We put down four inches or more, not quite touching the bases of the roses, and you're right, it can thatch. However, we get so little summer rain it doesn't usually matter. I did have one bed where I removed a good deal of mulch and loosened up what remained because investigation showed that the ground was bone dry under the hay. The hay does generally keep the ground underneath cooler and moister; it suppresses or discourages weeds--Bermuda grass doesn't like a mulch--while bringing in grass seeds of its own; and it eventually decomposes into badly needed compost. I can't imagine our garden without the hay. At this point after two or three weeks without rain the ground is already beginning to crack. Melissa

Hi Everybody, Hope you all are warm and cozy in our crazy winter weather. If I dont get a chance Happy holidays to you and yours. Wishing you all a happy solitice too. It is all down hill from now on. (tommorow) I did some ws sowing today and wanted to keep them in one thread for record keeping purposes. No datebase this year. LOL Wishing you all happy Wintersowing. Brrr coldest gardeners out there. My ugs did not keep my feet warm ruuning all them jugs out there.....Smile Barb Columbine Magpie Campanula Latiflora bellflower Geum Mrs bradshaw Digitalis Mertonensis Yellow golden rain tree for the baby Butterfly blue pincushion Mixed Phlox Pink liatris Veronica Royal blue Dwarf balloon flower Geum blazing sun Balloon flower purple Shirley poppy Columbine Pure white flowers China white poppy poppy power's poppy Heliopsis Lorraine Sunshine Belamcanda Chinensis Hello yellow Galliardia Pulchella Red plume Carex frosty curls Verbascum milkshake Oriental poppy Pink with black eye Double decker Ech Perilla Moonlit seas Aconitum Carmichael Shooting star Mixed larkspur Lavender delph.