That is really too cold for seedlings. Isn't 30F below freezing? Growing on a windowsill is really not sufficient light to start seeds. They will get leggy and week searching for the light. Is there no way you can hang a simple plug in flourescent light fixture. Look through the forums some people have ingenious ways of doing this. Yes tomatoes are about the only ones I know of who benifit from being planted deeper. Many others will die if treated that way. If you want to put them outside you will have to use a cold frame, but that requires constant watching that it doesn't get too hot or too cold and your plants will need to be watered often. I'd say for another year check out the winter gardening forum.

Yes yes and yes! I was celebrating it on the CA forum as well. I got some perfect Honor blooms the other day. I thought the only thing missing is fragrance. I cut them and put them in a vase with some huge Papa Ms. A day later they all had strong fragrance. I don't remember Honor having such a good fragrance. I should cut them more often. Rouge Royale and Souv. M are loking good too. Everything has a good size and color and the flowers open slowly and last for days. Can't we have another month of this fine weather please? I think of it as a compensation for the hell wind that devastated my spring flush earlier.

The answer to your question depends on a few key factors: 1) exposure to sunshine 2) air circulation 3) porosity/ drainage of the soil mix 4) plant's "vigor" This time of year, in my experience, if you can place your plant where it gets unobstructed midday sun outdoors with good air movement, in a potting mix with a high percentage of inert drainage like perlite, and there is a healthy rootball, you should not encounter any problems with rain and cold until you start to get frosty evenings regularly. Those are all important "ifs". I find the SW African plants that in their native habitat receive the majority of their precipitation during the fall season do very well. It is normal in habitat for these plants to have cold nights with the soils drenched from heavy dews and fogs. The difference maker in habitat is that normally it warms up nicely in the day, whereas that doesn't happen for many of us growers. A few consecutive days/ nights of wet and cool weather won't harm healthy plants. Once you get into 3-4+ days of cloudy, cool and wet weather, you need to take action accordingly. I try to plan ahead - for example, if my 10-day forecast shows a week of sun and warmth followed by rain, I let my plants dry out to the point of near-desiccation, then let them recover during soaking rains. Watering is sporadic this way. Sometimes they get too much, sometimes not enough. Every season I worry less and less, and lo and behold these plants don't disappoint. It is a testament to their adaptability. Over the years I have lost far more plants to heat and drought, than to rot - that's for sure. x

Carol, So far this morning, we're down to 34 and were forecast to go to 40, which makes me wonder how cold we'll be this weekend on the night forecast to go down to 32. When I see those large, healthy tomato transplants in the stores here in March (and, this year, in February), my home-grown transplants always look so small by comparison. I sort of have a little moment of panic, something like "oh, my plants aren't ready yet!" and then I calm down and get a grip and remind myself they shouldn't be ready yet because it isn't planting time yet. By the time that the proper planting time arrives, my plants will be just the size they should be. It's the same thing when they have squash plants the size of my hand (which, for early March, isn't actually good since the ground is too cold for those plants) and my 'plants' are still seeds in the packets. I have about 2/3s of the tomato seedlings outside where they sit on the concrete patio and soak up sunlight all day and then go back onto their tables in the garage at night. On the days that they have full sun instead of cloudy skies they seem to make some good growth and have great color. They're not ready to go into the ground yet, though. For one thing, the wind would beat them to death right now. I strategically place them where buildings protect them from wind right now, but once they're in the ground, they are on their own. I do hope we have a nice, steady warming trend the rest of this month so the ground warms up earlier this year than last year, but I expect we still have another couple of cold fronts coming even after this weekend's cold front passes. I'm be happy even if our last cold weather is the Easter freeze as long as there's nothing else really cold after that. El Nino is slowly receding so we still have cooler and wetter than average conditions forecast through at least May, so it doesn't make any sense to me to rush the warm-season plantings along. Dawn