Pippi, 2 things I am for sure going to plant on winter solstice!! I have been biting at the chomp to plant these seeds for at least a year and a half. They both need 3 months of a cold period, that is why also they are going down december 21st. Vaccinium Deliciosum (Cascade Huckleberry) Vaccinium myrtillus (European Blueberry Huckleberry) A few things I already have planted. A few more things I need to keep warm inside then plant, ughh I am behind. I am still deciding for sure what all I am going to plant but another good one would be Asimina triloba (pawpaw tree). That one also needs a long cold period. I am debating on trying to start my Euonymus americanus (strawberry bush) Some say it needs 3 to 4 months cold. Then some say it needs 3 months warm then 2 months cold. I tell ya what it is a shame the internet can not be consistent with advice given. Reading comes no where near the value of experience, ughh. I may just try it and see what happens. The fellow I got them from was extremely generous in our trade. I believe I can afford to try one each way. Trial and error right??

Congratulations cAROL!! You got a good start this year! Several of those are the seeds I sent you aren't they? I got 32 jugs done between yesterday and today. Tried to stick with things that need cold stratification but it's tough to nail it down with one or two seed types. There's conflicting information available so I just put those aside. I have far too many to get done to worry about the ones I'm not sure of. So far: Rudbeckia hirta 'Autumn Colors' & 'Cherry Brandy' Gaura lindheimeri 'The Bride' Pansy Penstemon 'Huskers Red' Russian sage Apple Pear Tricyrtis hirta/toad lily Phlox paniculata 'David' Stokesia 'Blue Danube' Hypericum Maiden grass Blackberry lily Trollius ledebouri/Chinese globeflower I'm most excited about the Russian sage. I harvested seeds--it's a lot of work getting at them so they'd better sprout! I've already had a comment from a neighbor who spotted the container ghetto on the breezeway. I would never have got so many done if I didn't prep jugs & write labels out way ahead of time. That's making a big difference this time. Silly me last year wrote out one label for each seed type when I actually needed multiples of each. Smartest thing I did was drag a bale of Fafard growers mix inside back around Thanksgiving. I've been taking snapshots along the way to share with everyone as the winter rolls on.

First I am not trying to argue. Second I have seen your gardens in the uk and they are gorgeous. Just stunning!! To me heirloom is of course a tried and true. Which means open pollination, which simply means that the item in question needs to be pollinated by insects or other means like someone hand pollinating it. Tried and true for generations to me means that it is grown from seed and tried over and over again and it still comes true while being open pollinated unless it is crossed. Melons or Curcurbit can cross within half a mile. Beans and peas do not cross. Tomatoes excluding hybrids potato leaf and currant will not cross. This simply means that if a plant is open pollinated and it is tried and true. That to me means that it produces TRUE seed. Heirloom, tried and true!! In regards to an apple tree, most actually have to have 2 types of apples in order to produce fruit. Now if you are going to try and gather seed you can't very well gather seed without an apple. If natives did not come TRUE from seed regardless if it is a bush, shrub or a flower. Then how do they reseed out in the wild?? 1 criteria of winter sowing is if it reseeds then you can winter sow it. Callicarpa americana is a native. Native means that it is distributed in its area by means of wind or birds or human distribution. Euonymus americanus is another native. Both are shrubs and both come true from seed. IF they are not crossed. Now granted if I was to have 3 types of callicarpa they would not come true from seed, and the ONLY option would then be to propagate from cuttings to get a true plant. Hybrids, the only way to propagate a hybrid is to propagate from cuttings. Some say that if a hybrid sets seed then you can grow it. It is possible in 3 years of saving the seed after 3 generations you may get a stable strain. That to me is not worth it. So I don't mess with hybrids. PawPaw is a native tree that produces fruit, which produces seed, which is true. Mulberry is a tree that produces fruit that produces true seed. There are a lot of fruit trees that actually produce true seed, there are a lot of shrubs that produce true seed. What you have to be aware of is simply: Is there anything that it may have crossed with?? Is it a hybrid?? If people learned botanical names instead the description then this would make seed saving a heck of a lot easier in my opinion. The botanical tells you a lot. Just because you can grow it from seed doesn't mean it will produce true seed. That is why heirlooms are sought is because they DO produce true seed if not crossed. Here is my favorite website on seed saving!! Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Saving

If these are the ones I have and they behave the same for you as me the fruit is quite inferior to that of highbush. If we lived on mountain ridges we could just step out the door and pick Vaccinium deliciosum. Heating bills would be murder, though.