Wintersowing......have you started yet?

And what are you sowing this year?

from all my years sowing, I have found most start after the holidays, when things settle down again.

I've started as early as the first week of Jan, and on busier winters, as late as end of Feb.

Since I have moved out of the midwest, I will be sowing in January, but not sure if it is still called winter sowing .... I'll just be using pots instead of milk jugs.

I should be getting my seeds, from a big swap, mid-January, so that is when i generally get started.

I think I'm up to 60 items with more coming as the family drink milk/juice. Very excited as the hubby got me a portable greenhouse for Christmas. I suspect he is not too enamored at looking at all the jugs on the patio.

Lol Memays....I'm in same boat, hubby says "don't get carried away" but he knows me better!!
I'm also planning about the same number of varieties...mostly perennials and a few annuals, everything from lavender to forgive and capillaries to chelone, from Canterbury bells to coneflowers!. I think I'm going to need more containers as I'm still collecting but I can always go to dollar store and use large cups if I have to. :-)

sometimes a decent resource is FreeCycle.

I've seen folks offering anything from gallon water jugs to Qt Yogurt containers.... One guy, think i read it on FB that he posted on FreeCycle looking for containers and some folks saved them for him.

TCs
I just read that recently also and have posted on my local freecycle!

Well , I did my winter sowing yesterday by filling up 10 jugs of Delphinum,snaps,petunias, cockscombs, white anemone , painted daisy,lavender, red Cardinal flower, salvia ,lupine and Sweet basil.It was a long process but I got through well . I always chuckle because being a Senior it seems as a big task now but I enjoyed seeing the results when the gardening season comes.I also sort all my seed containers so I know what I have and when I am going to sow them.

Cynthia,
I am chomping at the bit, but a foot problem/surgery has slowed me down. I'm back on the mend, and starting to get my containers ready. So you are ahead of me! Do you WS basil and annuals like the petunias this year, tho? I thought annuals and herbs didnt go out til March or so?

TCS...VERY disappointing. I posted on freecycle and havent heard from anyone who wants to recycle! I'm doing OK and will make due if I need more...one way or another.I DO have til March to sow some seeds, at least (more time to get containers)

This thread has not got much attention/talk....Either people arent WS'ing or much or they are "old hands" at it and not into talking about it!

Yes valal, last year I winter sowed Basil and I planted them among my tomato plants and I had very good tomato plants .I saved the seeds when the basil flower dries up. In my garden petunias and snaps reseed themselves so that's why I know I can winter sow them. I even use the Cranberry juice bottles and the Corn oil jugs and the vinegar jugs too. Hope you recovery from your foot surgery soon so you can enjoy gardening again.

My first winter sowing experiment yielded disappointing results so I am trying again. Very small efort- 6 plastic gallon vinegar bottles with 8 different seeds. Two of the jugs I divided down the middle and sowed a different variety in each half. These are all seeds I've collected from my garden this fall so no money lost if my grand experiment fails again. In my jugs are 3 different kinds of milkweed (tuberosa, sullivant, incarnata), bottle gentian, geranium Purple Heron, caryopteris Worchester Gold, echinacea White Swan, digitalis grandiflora. Wish me luck!

Hi frahnzone5,we learn by trial and error and I had my first successful delphinum plants from winter sowing method. I had tried the indoor method but did not have any results. So keep trying at it .

Frahn,
We're you able to ascertain why you experienced poor results last year?
This is my first time ws'ing and I'm going a bit overboard with the number of seeds/ plantings..so hoping for good results.
I am also in one 5.
I wish you MUCH luck this year!!!!

Felisa -- i think last year was a tough year for me too. I know I had good luck with Penstemons - but they may have succumbed to lack of water in the summer. The Bottle gentian I have never had luck with. Echinies WS pretty well. My friend in IN successfully germinated A. Tuberosa where I did not, though i recall incarnata did well for me.

Who knows... maybe it's just hit of miss sometimes.

I moved to FL this past fall, so I wont be WS'ing per se but more sowing into pots. I do have to start some penstemon seeds, will have to use the frig for that. But i'd really like to have some down here, just hope it gets cold enough.

Terese

The beginning of my winter sowing....I have alot planned and got a head start by buying roasting pan tins with clear plastic tops. Then I will continue prepping my recycled bottles etc w/drainage holes and use them. Sowed 27 different kinds of seeds today.

Way to go!
I like to see people starting lots of seeds.

Hi valal, I like your containers its a great idea . Will try them when I sow my annuals in March .

My first winter sowing at all - I started with Dietes Iridiodes and a white Iris Sibirica, because I failed both miserably with indoor refrigeration last year - so it's the last chance for those two, if they really want to be in my garden. Additionally, I added some Gladiolus communis subsp. byzantinus. I want to select Gladiolas for hardiness, so winter sowing may be a good start. I've ordered some more gladiolus species, hope they arrive in time for more winter sowing.

Pmm,
Best of luck and keep us posted how you make out! You're not planting the "run of the mill" perennials (like me!)

Well, my garden isn't that big and I'm a big fan of diversity. I rarely need more than three plants of a certain perennial, so I tend to buy the "run of the mill" types as container plants and only sow (bi-)annuals and some things that are no "commodities" at your average garden center.

Greets,
Garak

Broad Ripple currant tomatoes , self sow here actually ,
Daylily
Delphinium
poppy Several types
Milkweed Several types
Violet (Pansy
List goes on to about !6 or 18 containers ,, More Poppies and Natives this month ,,
A little winter garden play a few days ,,

valal
I was looking at your seed planters. Make sure the containers are protected from the wind.

Thanks birder! I taped the plastic lids down with duct tape and they are on the back of my deck which should be good. Also surrounded by bunches of jugs. :-)

Memays are you still sowing?

I've got more to do this weekend

Hi valal, you can also put some big rocks or bricks around them because the winter winds are very strong, birder17 is correct.I showed you in last year thread I put jugs tightly in milk crates.This site really gives us lots of information and I have learned so much here.

I am. Every time the family empties a juice or milk jug it gets seeds. Today it was vervain, liatris, rattlesnake master, and cup flower. My anise hyssop is already sprouting. My teenager think I'm nuts by it makes me happy! Will be even happier when the hummingbirds an butterflies return.

I only WS iris and daylily seeds over the last 5 year. Both need stratification (moist cold) to mimic nature and germinate.



This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:25 AM

I'm trying a few new ones for me this year:
Lavandula angustifolia 'Lady"
Liatris
I don't have much self confidence that they will make it to maturity, but I wanted to try something different.

I'm trying 3 kinds of milkweed. Asclepias incarnata, speciosa and tuberosa. I put them in the fridge last year in baggies. Then they didn't transplant. Hope the jugs outside work better.

I also have 10 water bottles with tomatoes and 10 with peppers.

OK, I'm hooked, even though I have no sprouts yet, but I haven't expected them so soon anyway... I've added a pot of Alstoemeria lightu. They're said to be divas regarding to germination, so let's see...

Waiting in anticipation til spring when my seeds will start sprouting. right now, we're experiencing a blizzard and all my wintersowing has appropriately been covered with over a foot and a half of new snow! :)

Hi valal, what nice pictures my hubby showed me the deers in the first picture.lol

That was a test...to see if you were paying attention - LOL!

Most seeds of hardy perennials require stratification. Seeds of annuals and tropical plants do not.

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:29 AM

I have Asclepias tuberosa in my garden. I love it. I have a few plants that re-seeded. I also moved the plant, even though, it has a tap root. I did not get all of the tap root when I transplanted, but it survived and is happy in rather poor soil, on a slope with good drainage. I can't remember if I Winter Sowed this plant or not. I have had it several years. I think I did in a milk jug.
If you can't get this neat plant to grow from seed, It's one I'd recommend purchasing. It lives a very long time and may re-seed for more plants.

I WS'd some Asclepias tuberosa so I can report how it does come spring :) It's a pretty plant. So glad to hear it's long lived. Hope it attracts alot of butterflies also :)

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:26 AM

They are all beautiful flowers.
I am assuming the Asclepias incarnata doesn't re-seed like the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca?
This is the one that has a white bloom and is along the roadsides?

Yes A. incarnate does set seed but is not seed weedy like the common one. I

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:29 AM

Thanks, Blomma. Good to know.