You made me smile!!!

Me too! Those babies look delish! Wow! Great looking seedlings!

Wonderful healthy looking plants! Makes the winter seem shorter. Who are the parents or are they random seed collections? What ever they are they look delightful

When did you start these seedlings. Jeff?

Well I spread out starting my seeds this year from early November till last week, most in the forground were started in mid November.

These are from a number of different deliberate crosses, some in the forground are from 'Cranberry Wine' which is a fun pod parent plant to use as the wavy characteristics tend to show up early.

Smiles are good!

Beautiful. I never had luck growing from seed

Are they in a heated room? How long (if) did you keep them on a heated mat? Well, in other words, did you use heat to grow them?

Love the venous ones. Ze veins! Ze veins!

Wow, that photo makes me yearn for Spring. You are SO tempting me to try my hand at seedlings next winter.

Made me smile too,you have done well with them.

Seedling mix pic from tonight.

Temperature is real important to grow seeds of all types. When I germinate hosta seed I use a heat mat that has a thermostatic controller and I like to keep it at 80 degrees. I recommend somewhere between 70 and 80 degrees and you will have good luck. Once they germinate and get to like 2 leaves I'll move them to a shelving unit without a heatmat but as I turn on more lights the room gets warmer, tonight it is running mid 70's

Those are simply beautiful. I'll be surprised if I don't try winter sowing next year...I've saved all I could find from Bernd's seedling posts, Devon's, now Bungalowmonkeys, and this is just icing on the cake.

All nitro, you must be so proud of these little babies. Love them.

heat really is the key ....

too many of you peeps are doing this in a cold basement in the dead of winter.. and wondering why they dont THRIVE ....

i really dont think the heat mat is imperative .... but its about keeping the heat.. level.. all day long.. it isnt good to have them toasty at say 70 during the day with the furnace going.. and 64 at night.. when the house is cold.. you are giving up.. half of your growing day ...

what one might call.. half a day of suspended animation ...

think about it this way .... this might be bacon inspired genius ... or the ramblings of an idiot savant... lol ...

hosta grow roots to store energy in basically july ... hot days.. hot nights ... the next year.. is all about how big a root mass you can grow ...

why would it be any different with a babe ... you are NOT growing leaves.. you are growing ROOTS .... and they grow best in warm media ... 24/7 .... grow the roots.. and the leaves will follow .... dont you think ...

and what nitro doesnt mention ... is the ... he??? .... ah.. they ... UP POT ... we see them right now.. in 4 oz solo ... when it is filled with roots ... they will bare root.. and up pot.. to 6 or 8 oz cups.. with .. wait for it.. FRESH MEDIA ... and grow the root mass even bigger... perhaps... i am presuming here.. but this is how i used to do it ...

bruce baby once told me.. be rough when bare rooting .... it is thought to release/trigger survival/growth hormones.. and with the new media.. and fert ... you will fill the next size cup ... with 24 hours of warm media... in 4 to 6 more weeks...

by mid march.. you could be working your way to 16 oz solo cups ... and have an 8 to 12 inch plant.. by summer ...

and never once.. scraping off algae ... whats that all about ....

i even once.. had seedlings flowering by late march .. and if i had had other plants to hybridize.. i could have had pollen for the next iteration of my quest.. for whatever my goal was ... but i didnt care that far .. back then ...

nitro.. you are running on perfecting it all ... congrats ....

the best part.. in the dead of winter.. was not so much the plants.. but walking into a room... humid room.. that smelled like spring.. it was the smell of the media.. that used to get me ...

ken

Mmmm...raw bacon...