so comforting to know I'm not alone!

No, I'm not quite thinking of winter sowing yet - I am in the middle of downsizing my mothers things and helping her to move to an independent senior apartment. It's going slowly ;)

I did sow some seeds last week though. Seeds I collected from a noble fir by my garden shed, and some iris I collected from one of my plants.

I've thought about saving jugs but haven't thought of sowing seeds yet. Still in the process of saving seeds this year. Won't get antsy about planting until the snow is flying and I've been cooped up in the house for a while.

Rodney

Been there, morz, all the best to you... Yes.. I've been saving seeds but find the wintersowing in this hotter climate to be a little frustrating so far. Not so much the sowing/sprouting, but keeping the dang things alive after I transplant them. There seems to be a razor thin edge between baking the seedlings to death in too much sun versus watching them sit and do nothing all summer in too much shade. I am about to give up on foxglove, although I saw it growing happily in my zip code a couple years ago. Fig-leaved hollyhocks were a rust-ridden disaster too. I wonder if it's the humidity more than the temps for them, though. On the bright side, however, failures in 1 area force me to experiment in others, so I continue to learn.

Lois, I am sorry to hear you are having trouble! I love WS, but I know we have to be careful because stuff sprouts early....then we plunge back into 30s/40s and back and forth. Foxglove does well for me, but I have them in slightly shadier conditions. I do know what you mean about seedlings baking. It does not take us long to go from "Oh, hi spring!" to "SUMMER, WHAT?!!".

Far as thinking about WS...maybe....I mean, I have seeds on my shelve and table...jugs in blue barrels in the backyard...seed orders waiting on websites....so, I guess you could say I could. :)

Not thinking of sowing specifically, but have been enticed and excited by some seed catalogs. I had to look up some flowers or other last week, and my internet searches of course led to seed company sites, and thoughts of spring and a fresh start in the garden got me motivated to think about what I would want to grow next year.

Between the 3 or 4 gallons of milk my son and I drink each week, and the distilled and regular water my husband uses, I could go into business supplying winter sowers with jugs, lol!

I'm thinking about WS!! I want to do white and either yellow or orange for my front garden and will try to winter sow some of the plants. I have an orange zinnia that I love that I grew from seed last yr and will use it again.

Any suggestions on white or yellow annual? l want color all summer it faces south but is shaded in the am by a tree then on the east late in the evening.

Thanks

My suggestions for White:

#1) Orlaya grandiflora - White Lace Flower “Minoan Lace” - lovely lace cap blooms held above ferny dark green foliage - great for winter sowing method of germination

Angelonia angustifolia - Summer Snapdragon

Euphorbia hypericifolia 'Inneuphe' DIAMOND FROST - usually grown as annual - cuttings root easily in water - light and dainty white - would probably need to purchase plant (can be overwintered in cool greenhouse or as a houseplant) and then take cuttings from mama plant in early spring for planting out - doesn't like wet feet.

Mary

I'm drying seeds from plants I want to wintersow again. Haven't gotten around yet to doing a seed inventory to see what else I might want to sow. I'm pretty busy with my fall garden!

I learned the hard way to stock up on enough potting mix. If I wait until it's time to w/s, then the big bags are frozen solid in the outdoor garden centers.

Saving seeds and containers is also a good thing to do this time of year.

I stock up on potting soil, but sometimes forget to bring it in, so it's just frozen solid in my back yard! I was out there last year chipping away, lol. This year I swear it's going straight into the basement!

This cool weather has me thinking about wsing. I'm going this weekend to get my soil. I keep mine in the garage...otherwise I would be out chipping it out of the frozen ground too. I've been taking inventory of the seeds I still have left from last year that I didn't get a chance to plant and cleaning the seeds I've been saving for this year.

My office gave away candy to some of the local groups we serve, and there were large, clear plastic containers left over. Each is about a gallon, nearly cube-shaped, and with a clear, flat top. I got 59 of them! Already clean and neatly stacked. I just need to put in drainage and ventilation holes.

Sorie, I have white snapdragon seeds, and also orange Calendula. Also, annual black-eyed-susans that are beautiful all summer, but they will reseed forever, if you don't dead head them. Oh, and yellow/orange cosmos seeds. If you want any of those, message me through Houzz.

Martha

yep - I use square litre pots as they are nice and deep and don't cover apart from a layer of chicken flint grit (cheaper and finer than horticultural grit). So far, achillea red shades, helenium 'Helena) around 8 -10 asterss (oblongifolius, Composition, Lucida, Adrienne, cordifolia, laterifolia, umbellata etc.) heliopsis 'Summer Nights', anenomella, lindera longifolia, mertensia virginica, malva moschata alba, muhlenbergia capillaris, ipomopsis rubra, primula prolifera, primula vulgaris, primula secundiflora, primula auricula, eryngium planum, eryngium gigantea, eupatorium maculatum, angeliva sylvestris 'Ebony' chaerophylum hirsutum...and quite a lot of trees. My sowing season starts in September with direct sown hardy annuals and hardy perennials, then carries on right through until the last biennials in May.

For anyone who runs out of potting medium mid-winter, the stores that cater to the hydroponic growers should always have room temperature ProMix on their shelves, or at least back in storage somewhere. Just Google Hydroponic retail store and you should find what you need, depending on where you live, of course. The marijuana growers are often frequent customers, because their crop has to be grown indoors by regulation.

Martha

It's been so unseasonably warm, I'm wondering when I might be able to winter sow.

I dream of WS all year long. It's been too warm here to WS. Today is supposed to be a high of 60. I usually don't start wintersowing until mid-Feb. I do want to try more hardy annuals like larkspur, tall snapdragons, etc.

Bellarosa, Larkspur is one plant that seems to resent transplanting so much that it does better direct sowed than wintersowed. I have grown them both ways, but get much better results when the seeds simply drop from the plants and grow on their own. Do a search on sowing larkspur and see what you find.

Martha

I've sowed Purple Smoke Tree Seeds and Mesquite tree seeds, and I hope you can relate, another that I didn't label and have been wracking my brain to remember what it was. Gads! Obviously something I wanted so what the heck? If it comes up I will maybe be clued in.

And if.... fingers crossed, some trees get gone next door I hope to plant these along the border as an ornamental view barrier, I'd like some small trees and shrubs there.

I've got a few native seeds lined up but have been too lazy to get potting soil. Echinacea angustifolia is top on my list along with several others.

We often have warm, dry winters here with no snow. It doesn't hurt with sowing in winter so if anyone is worried about the temps, I wouldn't unless its tender annuals or vegetables. Thats the norm down here. If we waited for snow and consistently cold temperatures we never sow anything at all.

MA is still warm by winter standards. So instead of planting I will continue to collect containers for when the time is right.

meeeee!! but like all of the east, it has been so blasted warm for the past month that i stayed my hand! it did give me an opportunity to get my containers 'slightly' organized! i can't remember when i started last year... maybe feb 1st? nw ga/zone 7b-ish

Now that the holidays are over, I'm starting to go through my seeds and I guess I should be getting my containers ready too. It's definitely cold this week, just not sure if it will stay that way.

I found my dirt stained notebook from last yr. i started sowing feb 4th - nw. ga. i might wait a bit longer for the veggies... my beans were already ready before i was! gotta get my station built, and the carport cleaned out/tidied, and my seeds organized, and, and, and!!!!!

It is now quite frigid here in Massachusetts so I have started slowly putting out containers. I have four so far with more on the way.

This is my first year wintersowing. I have some young ones helping, one who just likes growing things, one who likes climbers, one who wants to do entomology (specifically bitterflies), a bread seed poppy lover, a zinnia lover, and another one who will be helping me with my heat tolerant tomato trials. We have the ball rolling and have some containers out with many more to go, I'm currently in the hospital with my bread seed poppy lover with a burst appendix but my plant lover at home has been carrying on, she in particular wanted to get the 30 or so varieties of daylillies planted. We are running out of containers. You would think with all these kids that we'd hVe plenty of milk jugs but we have our own cow, so we are bumming off of others.