Docmom gives good advice, you'll need to watch the moisture, and anything you have sown and covered with plastic or a lid will need the lid removed at the first sign of germination indoors. Where damping off isn't an issue outside, it will be in your room. Approximately what temperature does this room keep over winter unheated? I've sown things indoors under a skylight and found that to be adequate light without supplementing with some kind of set up, but seeds for things that will germinate without chill. If you are sowing things that require a moist chill before they will germinate, you'll need a space that will stay at a maximum temp of approximately 40F for several hours a day (or night, it can fluctuate) for a number of weeks. If you do have seeds requiring that (stratifying, and it would be some but not all perennials, shrubs, trees for the most part), you would want to provide the chill before placing in your sunroom to germinate unless this really is a room unused in winter that gets that cold at least overnight. Your refrigerator will work. So, what are you thinking of sowing? Edited because I realized I'd typed 'minimum' earlier when what I'd meant was maximum. Right around 40ish degrees at some point in 24 hour period and not consistently warmer. This post was edited by morz8 on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 16:53

"Do any of you sow a ton too many seeds..." ALWAYS!!!! It's a curse. I just can't stop myself. I too think, what if they die? It will be too late to sow more in the spring. So do I sow one or two extra? No, I sow one or two more JUGS extra. Do I really need 3 dozen tomato plants? 50+ zinnia plants? 9 different kinds of marigolds? No. But you never know so you'd better sow a few more seeds... So every spring, I give things away, trade them, and often end up dumping milk jugs of spent annuals into the compost in November - the poor things have spent their entire lives in the milk jugs on the driveway, miniature versions of themselves because they weren't given the room to grow as they should. But I never learn... although, this year, I promised myself I would try to restrain myself... ;) Dee

Hi! My name is Karen and I've posted some questions on the geranium forum and got some good advice, but noone is terribly chatty over there so I was wondering if this is a good forum for me to join. Are you taking new members?? I'm in IL and we started over 700 (agh!)pelargoniums, or whatever they are called. We call them geraniums. Anyway, I was told to pinch and went to town and I hope I did it right because I have some sad plants. And it's about time to start hardening off...and I haven't a clue what I'm doing! We have two portable greenhouses outside with heaters in them and we put the impatiens and pansies, I think, in there. But the geraniums are inside under grow lights and in sunny windows (as sunny as it gets during the long awaited IL 'Spring' if that's what you call it!) Can anyone help me keep them alive?

Ahhhhh, Annie. I wish I could see some lunas. I didn't know they ate parsley, though. I know the black swallowtails do. They are the so-called "parsley worms" that are yellow, black, and white - so pretty! I collect the eggs, put them in my cages and keep stuffing the cages with fresh leaves until they begin to roam and find a place to hang, form their chrysalid, and then it's wait for a couple weeks until they eclose. My granddaughter has such fun. Last year, her granddad came over to see her "worms". She said, "papa, they're not worms, they're caterpillars!" She was 3 years old! I still have an overwintering chrysalid of a giant swallowtail on my Rue. I keep watching because I'm afraid he/she will emerge too soon with this crazy weather. I had eumorpha achemons on my Virginia Creeper last year. Gorgeous huge caterpillars. They are members of the sphingid family. Hornworms. But, they lose their horn in the 2nd instar. Sometimes they are green and sometimes they are brown. They are so soft, like velvet. Very pretty cats. Gorgeous huge moths. These are the "hummingbird" moths. Also had snowberry clearwing moths on my honeysuckle. Cute little things. Tried to raise them, but boy do they like to wander. Every which way but loose! Finally (I hope, Linda), got the eumorpha achemon documented in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Hasn't been on the NGRS map before, but it is way outdated. I love the life cycle of the butterflies and moths. At the end of summer, I finally got gulf frits on my passion vine. They come in hundreds! Such pretty butterflies, though. This year, I will grow some cassia for the cloudless sulphurs - the big yellows. The caterpillars are yellow, too! What fun! Susan