I had the same worry as well. I have many seedlings growing right now in my garage. At least this way I can keep the from the cold nights. I started everything last month since it should be 6-8 weeks from our last frost date but this weird weather has me concerned that the frost may last longer. I keep them under grow lights 16hrs a day for now. They are mainly veggies, so Im hoping the weather settles by end of march so I can set them out before the outgrow the space in my garage. After that heat wave I didnt want to spend the time to put up a temp green house to have everything die on me.

"To get sweet pea flowers for Christmas, plant the seeds on Labor Day". That's the old saying. And it works. Also, sweet peas can be planted anytime bewteen end of October (I like to wait until the Santa Anas pass) and into January. Freesias (and other South African and most "Mediterranean" bulbs) are best planted in fall. If you're talking about bearded iris (rather than bulbous iris such as Dutch iris), it's best to move them or plant them 8-12 weeks after they finish blooming. Or, if you're faced with the reality that dormantlike bulbs are available in the fall only, you plant them in the fall. Joe

Hi, Jennifer! Nice to have you back with us! Start your winter sowing now if you can find a spot outside to set them. Maybe shovel a spot close to the house, out of the wind. Or set all of the plastic bottles inside a large plastic bin to keep them from blowing over. Just make sure to put drainage holes in the bin you set them in. Start with perennials first, then hardy or reseeding annuals, and save the tender annuals for last. If you let the seeds germinate inside, you will be stuck babysitting them indoors until your last frost date. Plus, then you have to gradually harden them off to the outdoor climate. If you use the winter sowing method, they will usually germinate when it is the right time, and will already be hardened off. I say "usually" because tender annuals will sometimes germinate during a warm spell, and then be vulnerable to frosts, which is why you should save them until late April or even May where you live. Check out the winter sowing thread for more information on the basic steps. There's also some pictures of how to prep a container that might help too. Jump in and get started. You'll be hooked after the first container! Bonnie

I'd wait a bit longer too. The ground is so warm and I feel like some of that heat could transfer to your wintersown containers if they are sitting on the ground. For me, self-sown amaranth seed that has sat out there on/in the ground all winter doesn't sprout until April, so I don't see any need to hurry it into wintersown containers right now. If it accidentally sprouts too early, it tends to freeze after sprouting. Hyacinth beans self-sow in my back yard and don't sprout until we get really warm....like in May of an average year, so I doubt there is any advantage to winter sowing them this early. In the heat we have now, they possibly could sprout quickly and then die when the weather cools off around Sunday or Monday. Watch for cold weather to set in consistently to avoid having things sprout too early in your wintersown containers. Self-sown/volunteer dill sprouts here around March from seeds lying in the soil all winter, but parsley might be okay if sown now. My parsley plants from this spring/summer are still green and do tolerate a lot of cold, so if yours sprout early, they likely would be okay. With perennial flowers (marigolds are not perennial in my garden, but are reseeding annuals), they should be fine if sown once this little heat wave is over. Some of them do need some cold scarification. Winter hasn't even really begun yet for most of us, so I wouldn't get in a hurry to winter-sow. Of course, winter will arrive shortly after Christmas for some of us, while Spring-like flooding seems likely in southcentral, southeastern and eastcentral OK. Why can't we ever have a simple, normal month when the weather behaves the way it should? The fact that we have all 4 seasons some weeks (at our house it has been in the 70s and summerlike for the last few days, today through Saturday will be spring, Sunday may be autumnlike and then Mon-Wed will be wintery) can make wintersowing iffy if done too soon as seeds that don't need cold scarification often can sprout quickly if the weather is still warm and then the small plants may struggle if typical Oklahoma wintery weather arrives just after that. For what it is worth, the weather here has been so wacky that many cool-season weeds sprouted in November and so did some wildflowers like henbit (a butterfly-desirable weedy wildflower or wildflowery weed). Dandelions are blooming in our yard and we have zinnia plants in the garden 3" tall. Bluebonnets in the field are about an inch tall and emerged in November also. They sometimes freeze back to the ground in January when they emerge in November, but not always. My fruit trees are acting like they are thinking about blooming, so I am hoping the cold weather hurries up and gets here before they do it. In the greenhouse, brugmansias and lantana still are in bloom as it never has cooled down enough for them to stop. It is a crazy December, so why not wait until at least January? Maybe the weather will stabilize a bit more by then. With the weather all over the place for the whole month of December, you have nothing to lose and much to gain by waiting a little bit longer.