Celery.. No cover light required for germination at 70F taking 10-17 days.....Rutabaga/turnip light cover temp 70F taking 7-14 days to germinate.....Carrot light cover soil temp 64-72F taking 10-21 days....Lettuce light cover soil temp 65-70F taking 6-10 days to germinate. Many inserts for growing seedlings are 1 inch deep but others for starting trees are 6 inches deep & may be used for starting root crops.Starting in a cold frame is common & instead of using FRESH manure on the surface I use it & cover with 1-2 incches of sand & it generates a lot of heat. A light bulb will also help. Also look on the package it gives time to maturity ....pick those varities with with the shortest time to maurity. I hope this helps

Not trying to get into the wintersow vs. not wintersow debate here but....... The only time it makes sense to wintersow is when you are sowing seeds needing cold stratification and I know some of the ones you listed do not need it. I sowed the Asceplsis incarnata in early August and plan to put them in the ground under mulch all winter. I am winter sowing some native shrub seeds needing a couple months of cold strat. in pots outdoors and three others that are perennials that specifically need it. There are no hard fast rules to this. To each his own. I rather enjoy sowing indoors in winter and have had very good results and it gives me an uplift in winter to do that. I have had good head starts on healthy plants this way and have sowed many SW shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, cactus, etc. I always have something indoors in winter I am sowing. I usually start them in October or November in a large sunny S. exposure window and grow them very cool in the coldest dark months sort of in a wait pattern, then let them get warm again in late Feb when the sun comes stronger. I use lights sometimes if necessary but usually they just sit there in the cold. I am not a wintersower to the degree popularized to a hobby level of lots of containers with holes, lids etc craze with every seed I get being done that way. I just use regular pots in the shade under the carport for the seeds specifically needing a cold period. For penstemons its good, they come up when its still very cold. Some seeds needing cold I direct sow. Sometimes I experiment and try all different ways to see what does best with a backup supply to resow in spring. Look up your different varieties and see what they need and go from there. I have sowed seeds as early as October and had established plugs to put into the ground come spring. Other times I put the late summer sown seedlings in the ground in late fall and cover them with leaf mulch and had good well rooted starts that way in spring. Look at nature, she does that all the time with seeds that have fallen. Mostly, make it fun for yourself and do what you want. Save extra seeds for insurance, or try multiple ways and experiment. Do a test in a damp paper towel with a few seeds to see if they sprout in a few days. Often that will tell you want you need to know.

The other advantage to wintersowing, besides being less expensive than buying (what pathetic selection they have available) at the nursery, and also having the space to coddle seedlings all over inside--messing with supplemental lighting, etc., and that your plants will be hardier and already hardened off, is this: your plants will also be hardier through the hotter months, and more resistant to the cold at the end of season. My wintersown tomatillo survived a pretty hearty frost last year, but the indoor-start one (yes, same seed/variety) didn't make it. However, one of the drawbacks is that, for some plants, there won't be enough head start to get big enough to get some harvest. For example, if you have longer-to-ripen tomatoes, they might not be ready to go before the first frost. Also, peppers will have a later start, etc., and something that didn't occur to me until a few days ago, is that my "120-day" okra (it's not really that long to harvest since it's a continual thing) will be so far behind the 8-ball that it might be August before we get our first okra, whereas if I have indoor or nursery starts, they are usually flowering in June. This might be particularly true if your actual growing season is shorter, like Bonnie's. The other thing to remember is that not all things are suitable for true wintersowing--basil and some herbs are a little too intolerant of the cold that if they sprouted then there was a freeze, they might not make it. However, if you're starting now, I think you're good to go on just about anything from the cold-intolerant timetable. That being said, I always start some stuff inside, and try to put it outside for as much natural sun during the day as possible, then bring it in at night until the nights are warmer. I do "backup" starts for the tomatoes that I can't live without (so then, will someone please explain to me how I have over 40 starts? Oh yeah... the SWAP!), and ALL my peppers and herbs--and certainly, the cherished okra. Also, I stupidly started some cipollini onions WAY too late (but I bought the seeds, and they'll be no good next year) inside, so we'll see if those guys turn out. Of course, Trudi D will tell you that she started wintersowing as a great experiment because she was going cabin-crazy in the deep of winter and just wanted to make some mud pies in January... (My husband now wonders, since we move our tomato containers into the garage and harvest until February, if he will ever see his wife's fingernails without any dirt under them... I'm goin' with NO)

I got some from Yuccadoo nursery when I went and visited them. They were giving them away to customers. They were really nice deep deep red with black centers and a roughly tuft of central petals around the black.Same with the Natural gardener. I got some fro trades. Most of the ones that come back every year are the singles.. The peony poppies seem to not come back after the two years of drought. OH , I bought some of the blue Hungarian bread poppies. They all seem to intergrade a bit. I planted store bought Shirley's and double Shirley's and large pack of multiple colors of Californian poppies this year. It is easy to get poppy seeds from seed traders BUT the trick is to get fresh poppy seed and USE them soon. Poppy seed do get old fairly quickly. I have a tendency to forget and store them till they are bad. All that you see in the pictures above are volunteer poppies. The pictures below are some close ups of poppies through the years. Most volunteer, some from trades.