what happens with a lot of them.. with the reduced sun.. they start getting really long .. sparse.. leggy ... so you root some new ones.. and once you see roots.. you throw out the old ones ... just keep cycling thru them over the winter... you do NOT end up with the actual piece you started with.. but you end up with the same plant ... to avoid a lot of problems.. sterilize everything.. media.. [no soil/dirt in the house] .. pots.. watering cans.. etc ... link to sterilize media in the microwave ... wet the media.. put in one gal bag.. nuke it... i dont care if the bag you buy says its sterilized.. do it again.. kill all those bug eggs and fungus spores to start with.. then there is no problem to later fix ... do NOT take anything i say to stop you from doing it.. its fun.. i am just trying to make you think about all the variables that need to be 'solved' ... and.. when you hit the wall.. just toss them out into the snowbank .... and try again next year ... the only failure is the failure to give it a try ... otherwise its all a learning curve ... ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

I live in East Central Mississippi. I would think that anything that does well for me would do even better for you in your area. I agree with all the above suggestions except: May Night Salvia (it peters out in a year or two and doesn't bloom that long even in the first year); Echinaceas (only bloom once here and the foliage doesn't pay its rent); Russian Sage (unless you can give it very dry conditions, forget it. It just hates our humidity.); Sedum (okay but not great. They tend to get long, leggy, and mildewey, believe it or not); Phlox paniculatas (only the species is worth shooting here). I grow more plants than the following, but this is my list of bulletproof, long blooming, easy care, good looking in and out of bloom, plants for this blast furnace we live in: Salvias: Farinacea, Victoria; (low enough for the front of the border. Blooms contintually all summer. My favorite.) Guarantica, Black and Blue; (blooms from mid summer on. Really really blue.) Mystic Spires; Leucantha (Just like farinacea, but bigger, and even bluer.) Cuphea Micropetala (Cigar Plant) Rudbeckia, Herbstonne (only blooms twice, but the foliage is gorgeous) Rozanne Geranium (blooms ALL summer) Asclepias, cursivaca (Bloodroot. Attracts butterflies. Never out of bloom.) Chrysanthemum, Mary Stokes (yellow), Clara Curtis (pink), and Sheffield (lavender pink) They are all invasive. I divide them each spring, put a small division in a 5 gallon pot, and plunge the pot into the bed. They are well worth the trouble. Coreopsis, Creme Brulee (needs division every fall, but blooms all summer) Other Coreopsis are ho-hum at best. (but I grow them anyway :) Artemisia, Powis Castle: wonderful foliage plant and not invasive) Lantanas (there are lots and lots of new colors available. Give them plenty of space.) Catmint Phlox subulata (Thrift) I also like grasses: Feather Grass and Muhly are my favorites. Bulbs: Crinums and Cannas are spectacular and easy. (The old Milk and Wine Crinums bloom off and on for months.) Kostelevskya, "Immaculate": spectacular fall bloomer Roses: None are over three feet tall or wide. I grow them all with an annual top dressing of compost and no chemicals. Nearly Wild (as good as, if not better than, knockouts) Belinda's Dream (must be deadheaded, but perfect otherwise) Nagadoches (golden yellow and outstanding) Cassie (low growing and pure white) Knockouts are excellent By the way, I underplant all my roses with daffodils. They don't start coming up until after I prune the roses, and the emerging rose foliage hides the daffodil's ripening foliage. Try it. You'll like it! Other colorful shrubs: Berberis: Any Purple, or the yellow one called Aurea. Spirea thunbergii: Ogon (gorgeous soft clouds of yellow-green foliage. White spring blooms.) Hydrangea Paniculata, Tardiva (whiter than Limelight, otherwise nearly identical. Both are lovely.) Evergreens give you something to look at in the winter: Chaemysyparis filifera, Aurea (Golden false Cypress) Arborvitae, Emerald Mugo Pines This may be more than you wanted, but I hope you can get some ideas! Happy Gardening!

Without knowing the exact seeds you sowed, I can only give you some general pointers for you. Seeds germinate when conditions are right for them. Some seeds take a long time to germinate. Others require environmental conditions to be present, such as a cold winter (which doesn't happen very much in Southern California). Also, if your annuals grew last year, they may have seeded, meaning they had flowers and spread seeds everywhere, such as what happens with my California poppies every year. Here's the concrete rule for identifying weeds: if you don't like it, then it's a weed. Just kidding. :-) Weds are merely plants in a place where you don't want them. You must know what the desired seedlings look like. Sometimes, this will be on the seed packets. Otherwise, you might want to try searching the Internet for a picture. Of course, you can always grow a plant from seed in a separate container to see what they look like at different stages of growth. If all else fails, let them grow a little bigger. Pretty soon, you should be able to discern differences between the weeds and desired plants.

The simplistic explanation is called climate adaptation (among other labels) - the seeds Mother Nature planted had time to adapt to their environment and maybe 1 in 100 adapted and survived to germinate and of those maybe 1 in 50 live a normal life. The seeds we plant have had no such adaptation time and we plant far less seeds and expect near 100% germination of healthy long=lived plants. And we often get it simply because we waited when Mom didn't. Mother nature is really a lousy mother when it comes to taking care of her kids. She's the "Good Luck, Kid. You're on your own." kind of mother. But that really is overly -simplistic and much of the confusion results from mis-interpretation or mis-applicationof guidelines. For example: guidelines are written in broad generalities in the hopes of applying to most situations and to provide the best odds for success. So "Plants started too early outside will end up less vigorous than plants started when warmer." is referring to seeds direct seeded outdoors when warmer, not to transplants - seeds and transplants are two very different things - and is very true simply because the seedling once germinated under ideal conditions will be less stressed, less damaged, more healthy than the seed that germinates under less than ideal conditions. Plus the folks that write these guidelines know that we always want to rush the spring planting season - to our own detriment - so they say anything they can to try to slow us down. It seldom works. ;-) Dave