Do any of you just plant seeds in the garden to overwinter and start growing next spring? I like the idea of getting a "leg up"! I think seeds that regularly self sow would work well,
columbine
asters
baptisia
kale
Can you think of more?
How about lettuce ?
Purple mustard
Purple Coneflower
I wish I could just plant zinnia and marigold seed in the fall because I forget to plant them in the spring!
Hardy seeds to sow outdoors in late fall ?
I plant the columbine when ripe in the summer. I already have evidence of small plants sprouting here and there.
It seems to give them a head start for next spring.
Milkweeds, especially A.tuberosa are ready now.
I collected some, "planted" some and let the rest float.
I have collected several lists of self sowers. I think that's what you're talking about:
Alyssum
Amaranth
Balsam
Blue Thimble Flower
Blue Woodruff
Bupleurum
Calendula
California Poppy
Cerinthe
Chinese Forget-Me-Not
Clarkia
Cleome
Coreopsis tinctoria
Cornflower
Cosmidium
Cosmos
Feverfew
Flowering Tobacco
Four O'Clock
Kiss-Me-Over-the-Garden-Gate
Lavatera
Love-in-a-Mist
Malva 'Zebrina'
Morning Glory
Night Scented Stock
Oenothera 'Sunset Boulevard'
Pincushion Flower
Poppy
Rudbeckia
Snapdragon
Sweet Pea
Verbena bonariensis
Viola
I think there are others as well. I have a bag of self sowers to plant (scrape up the dirt a little and
scatter) at the middle of Novemeber. I look forward to the big annual, double poppies, and many
of the others too.
I have always wondered about some of these self sowers; which ones will not come up if it is too cold a zone? Would they have to be called hardy annuals?
Recently I planted out poppy seeds. I saved some seeds to WS as well.
I had always wondered about snapdragon and nicotiana seeds.....
carolyn22...yes both can reseed out doors. Ooops, depends on the variety of Nicotiana. I have had n. sandersae reseed, tho not sylvestris. Those are the only 2 nicotianas I've grown, and both are yummmmy! I've also had Datura meteloides, Veronica spicata, Linum perenne, Hesperis matronalis, Dracocephalum (annual not sure if imberbe or moldavicum (keep thinking I need to look that one up), Verbascum phoenicium. Ocassionally Veronica spicata,, Penstemon mexicalii and strictus, Echinacea, Gypsophila repens, Salvia nemerosa and guarantica, Ammi visagna and majus, Lavendula munsted, Scabiosa ochulara, Osteospurmum Orange and yellow annual, Delphinium grandiflorum, Dianthus deltoides Zing, Phlox paniculata, Foeniculum vulgare, Centaurea montana and m. alba, machrocephala and phygria, Epalobium angustifolium, Centranthus ruber, Catanche caerulea, Agastache Blue Fortune, Digitalis purpurea, Lupin regalis, Salvia horminum Claryssa, Ratibida columnifera, Knautia macedonica, Monarda lambada, Physostegia virginiana, Daucus carota, Daisy Becky. Of the above plants, most were origonally grown indoors under light and after maturing found that these were varieies that also started in the garden on their own. Now I use my extra babies to make blocks of color in the border and also for trades. Pix is centaurea phygria (looks almost like thisle but is soft foliage and great cut. Kathy.
Kathy
I have had some veronicas, digitalis and the echinacea seed for me. I am particularly fond of the digitalis, so I do let that come back where ever it seeds....
Cait...I'm in zone 5a. Hope you find some great ones to try, a great pix catalog (and growing info is T&M Seeds (.com). . almost forgot Gypsophila panicula baby's breath. Pix below includes many reseeders. Good Luck all. Kathy.
LOL, gosh I just remembered 2 more: Lilium asiatic and tigrinum. .......Carolyn I just love the extra babies of favorites. I still want to get some taller digitalis such as Pam's or the new frilly one, my foxglove mertentisa is a shorter var. at about 12-18". Love veronicas, I have the tallest variety which is v. spicata "Sight Seeing Mix" (pink, blue and white at 28", gotta have thosecut flowers, thats why I like the tall varieties. Oh carolyn.. I did pick up Veronicastrum this fall (is tall veronica at 48-60 ". Pix is centaurea macrocephala and a veronica just beginning to open. Kathy.
Great pictures, Kathy! I especially like the non-prickly thistle look alike! I know you can grow a lot of things in CO that don't do well in IA because you have a drier climate. I once started a lot of perennials from T@M seeds but I have gotten lazy in my old age!
Cait... the flower is centaurea, which is related to Bachelor Buttons (annual). Below is a pix of another: Centaurea montana . I'm suprised you would have a hard time growing things in Iowa, I lived in s/e South Dakota and was great for growing, which side of the state are you located in? Kathy.
Hi y'all, I goofed and originally posted this in the CG swap thread, but am moving it over here in the hopes it'll help with sowing seeds about now that might be appropriate to November and weeks to come into this coming winter -
Speaking of sowing seeds this fall and autumn, November is a great time to sow seeds of plants that first sprout the embryonic root with warm temps, and then a leaf with cold temps. If you start now, then come spring you might be lucky to have new lily (this applies to peonies, too) seedlings with leaves just emerging when it's okay to put them outdoors with warming spring temps. This type of germination is for plants called "hypogeal" and since I'm on slow dial-up and it's late, I'm just going to point y'all in a direction where I think germination for hypogeal seeds can be found. The other type of lily seed is called "epigeal", and those germinate just at warm temps - look for the baggy method among the following links, too:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/search.php?st=Adv&forum=&q=hypogeal+%2B+germinate&forum_ids%5B%5D=104&limit_poster=&dl=0&dl-rel=0&sort-type=0&sort-order=0&Search=Search+Forums
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And then there's sowing seeds throughout this time of year into next winter. Following is a link to charts for each horticultural zone, where seeds successfully wintersown for those respective zones are listed. Go beneath where it says Winter Sowing Database and click on your zone to see which plants have been successfully wintersown - http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Seed_Lists.html . I like the way this website organizes and presents its information.
If anyone doesn't know their zone, you can find it here: http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html?
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Some folks like to sow directly on the ground outdoors (poppies & larkspur for example, possibly other hardy annuals depending on your zone). This can be done in a cold frame. But! Some folks sow directly in the spot in the garden they want the flowers to bloom. To protect seeds from being washed out by rains or snow melt or scratched out by critters, they anchor milk jugs minus their caps right over the spot there these seeds are sown and then let nature take its course. There's a host of different protectors that could be rigged up here but it's late.
Hope I haven't put too much info out, but these techniques will vastly increase the types of seeds you could sow right now.
heading for sack,
karen
Hi all.... I've always heard that anything that self sows seeds can be planted in the fall for plants the next year. I ALWAYS do that with my zinnia's because the butterflies and hummingbirds love them. Yes, even hummingbirds! lol I do holley hocks, marigold, etc. that I also spread. I have some dwarf red correopsis that I have gathered seed from this year that I am going to winter sow. Also some others ... anything that makes seed.
I am in zone 7a and have good luck with winter sowing. Don't know about the northern zones, but like I said before, I always heard anything that self sows can be sown in the fall.
Hope this helps.