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

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:28 AM

I winter-sowed a few years ago and set them out around the first of January but they sprouted, froze, then died. I did have some that sprouted later and did well but I just wait till February now to make sure they do not sprout too early. I had success with coneflowers, blanket flowers, and Rudbeckia. I will not grow any type of Rudbeckia again because it is too invasive here. I love Bergamont but it suckers really bad, I am going to winter-sow a few for containers. I am sowing several different Milkweeds, Sunflowers, Coneflowers, Bloodflowers, Salvias, Phloxs, Frostweed, Sneezweed and Winecups.
I did the milk jugs in 2012 but this year I just bought generic Ziploc containers. I am not doing that many maybe ten containers and I want to try vermiculite.
*

Wintersown.org has a list of native plants by zone! (native! )

http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Seed_Lists/Native%20Plant%20Seed%20Lists%20for%20Winter%20Sowing.pdf

Well I did a bunch on the solstice - had to just get outside - and have been steadily adding. I am seeing a couple seedlings but fingers crossed they won't die. January has historically been the coldest month temperature wise here (fingers crossed no freakish snow in Feb or March). We shall see. Of course I managed to knock one container all over hope that makes it. How many days till spring?.......

No danger of early sprouting here! We are supposed to get up to a foot of snow starting tonight and ending sometime tomorrow. Of course accompanied by gusting winds up to 30 mph! Spring is very far away (sigh).

Looks like a new Polar Vortex for the north! Stay safe everyone, spring is just too far away!

Polar Vortex: Say it isnt' so! Snowing now, we've got 3 inches so far, all the schools are closed (smart move - they started calling it off early last night)
Stay warm everyone!

If Jim Cantore shows up, then get worried! lol.

Yes, I agree--that's the time to get worried! Ha! :)

He is in Boston! I just added them to my list of places to never go to. LOL.

Hey! I'm outside of Boston too! :0)
Boston is Lovely, but perhaps not in "snow season"!

v rose: too funny! :) We should be ashamed of ourselves. They are having a tough time, and I do feel sorry for them. I'm visiting my son in Florida: 68 to 75 degrees-slight breeze. Nice.

Florida!!! Shame on you watching us from a tv set while you sun bath in white sand?

I went to the boston website and there are 609 things you can do in Boston, but they do not know one of them is to meet Jim Cantory.

Boston is very beautiful and worth a summer visit. :)


http://www.weather.com/news/boston/wcvb/video/parts-of-mass-get-2-more-feet-of-snow

Sure Birder, rub it in! Haha.
It's a lovely 10 degrees here this morning with 3-1/2 feet of snow on the ground..
Simply dazzling when the sun hits the snow piles!

Watched the video. Oh My Gosh! The only thing good I can think to say about all of that snow is the moisture will be nice for the plants in the future.

Yes, it is really nice here. We'll be going home soon. We have lots of stuff to do when we get back home. For one, check on my jugs of winter sown seeds.

snow is also great insulation. In years when we did not get a lot of snow and it was really cold -- I lost a lot of plants.

57° today! No winter sowing. :(

Virginiarose ,, Zone envy ,,, I got it ,,


Yes February and snow fever setting in causes these replies ,, you know ,,

This message was edited Feb 4, 2015 11:56 PM

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This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 2:03 AM

Blomma: "Mother Nature's... aim was that not all plants should survive in all climates."

ROFL! Still trying to get my bananas to fruit in MD. :-)

Just starting my winter sowing here.

critterologist
I agree. Isn't that what I stated in above message




This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:30 AM

yes -- I was quoting you! Should have used the quote box thing-y.

tcs1366, I heard that too! I remember a lady on another forum said her ground never freezes because of the snow and she was in zone 4.


juhur7,
We went from 57 straight down to 20° the very next night! If it would get cold and stay cold I would be able to start winter-sowing. Every time we have a warm up things start sprouting and so far I have daylilies that have froze and sprouted 5 times! This is a sure recipe for spring sickness! My fear is that I will loose a lot of plants. By Sunday we will be back up to 58°.LOL.

blomma,
I love the set-up you have, your seedlings look great.

critterologist,
I was growing a banana tree a couple of years ago and it died. They said it was hardy but I guess not, it would have had non-editable bananas.

Virginiarose We have had years like that here ,

Also I grew a Banana Tree here for almost three seasons , It died because of a flood , (it drowned ) They have to be a couple years old to grow outdoors to start with . like Goji and some others ,

Seems I want to grow all my seedlings at the same time these days , I have really got to change my behavior about that ,! ,, I don't keep up and lose to many , same as losing plants ,,,,
I don't like that ,, drive myself crazy ,doing that ,
The , Yeah , i know thing ,, ..

my neighbor -- originally from OH, she said when she came down here, she brought a lot of her beloved Daylillies... they lasted 2-3 yrs tops.

I did some winter-sowing today, just small containers so if it gets too warm I can put them into the refrigerator. I sowed salvias, milkweeds, paradoxa coneflowers, and red Ice Plant. :) Our temperature is going back up to 58° on Sunday.

juhur7,
I did set it out too soon because it said it was hardy, plus I bought it from someone in Florida or Louisiana. I think it went into shock!
I usually bite off more than I can chew, I still have daylilies from last spring that are still in pots. LOL. I have done good this year so far I only bought 16.

tcs1366,
The dormant daylilies do not get a good enough cold spell here, I have had the same problem. If you plant them in pots they will last longer because above ground the roots will freeze, but the ones that are in the ground are out of luck, we almost never have a ground freeze. I learned that little secret from my hostas, some of them fizzle out too. I loose a few and add a few every year!

VirginiaRose,

I read here (believe it was Blomma who said) you can't WS ice plants because the seeds wont make it. She suggested putting them in light peat moss mix (I used light potting soil) and putting them in the fridge for a week, then taking them out and waiting for them to sprout at room temp. I just took mine out today after a week and a half in the fridge. I believe they sprout in about a week (?) I'll let you know how mine do :o)

Dont we all plant too many seeds and bite off more than we can chew when it comes to our gardens. I started a huge project of transforming my backyard (95% grass) to garden beds and I overdid but I can't wait to see the results come spring/summer this year! I also just learned about wintersowing last summer, so couldn't wait to try it. I went a little (lot!) overboard with seeds..but you know what they say...better too many plants than not enough! I might need to join seed/plant-anonymous! I figure there are ALOT worse things I can be addicted to, tho!

Here are a couple Table Mountain Ice Plants , Grown in homemade sand mix , like for dryland or cactus plants .
Only pot plants here , tried twice outside , no luck



From seed , 123 Ice plants 4 and 5 my daylily , the orange I created in a tube

juhur- I LOVE the orange one.
valal- This is the only addiction that actually increases the value of your home! That's my excuse, anyway.

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:27 AM

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 2:04 AM

valal,
Thanks for the advise and for remembering blomma had said that. The seeds are in damp vermiculite so I will never find them now! These are the only seeds I have ever seen for ice plants, I bought them about two years from a seller on eBay. I do not recommend ebay, but I had been buying from this seller for a long time so I still buy a few packets now and then. The 'Buyers Protection' on eBay is only for 90 days and nothing will bloom in that amount of time. If they are not true to name you are out of luck. I only purchase seeds and plants from people I know.
valal anything worth doing is worth over doing! Glad I am in good company.

juhur7,
I love your daylilies!! I have not had much luck with ice plants that is why I am doing seeds, they are cheaper. I will bring them inside and uncover them, maybe they will dry out some but it got down to 29 last night. :/

blomma,
do you mean they were direct sown like in spring? I also winter-sowed yellow sneezeweed, bloodflower, purple burgamont for containters and something from a friend called blue curls. Suppose to be native.

tcs1366,
I just found out 'Blue Curls' is native to Florida! http://hawthornhillwildflowers.blogspot.com/2010/01/blue-curls-trichostema-dichotomum.html
they are beautiful and look like little orchids to me.

Virginia Rose,

You said:
"valal anything worth doing is worth over doing! Glad I am in good company"

I love it! My husband tells me it's my personality; I overdo on everything!

Glad I could help re: the delosperma seeds....I bought mine this past fall from sampleseeds.com. She has a nice selection of seeds at really inexpensive prices (1.25-1.50) and delivers fast. I also like Swallowtail, but I dont think they have these.

Blomma, I ADORE your delosperma garden....so lush and spread out and It was great see the sprouts to the blooms to the garden area! I bought 4 delosperma on line (wont buy from place again) site unseen (I didnt really know what they were last summer).

I think they are adorable and am looking forward to seeing my first blooms. They have gotten bigger (last fall) and I wanted more, so I figured I'd try and grow some.
VA,Let us know how yours do!

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:32 AM

valal,
Thanks for the advice and the website, I will check them out sometime. I bookmarked her.
I found that Swallowtail does carry a couple of ice plants!

blomma,
I put my ice plants into the frig. Tomorrow is getting up to 64°. I bought a few ice plants from Santa Rosa Gardens when they had a sale but they died. I had a nice looking starburst but it died too when I tried to move it. I needed to redo the bed. Starburst did not really like it here it was too damp, the following year it looked terrible. :(

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:33 AM

VirginiaRose, thanks for that info on the Blue Curls. Looks very interesting.

Terese

tcs1366,
Glad you like them!


blomma,
You are right the bed does not get as much sun since the tree got big. I have a dryer spot but dragging out the hose would be a problem till they get established. I think a good solution would be to mix my own soil and use a large container, I can have it in full sun near the hose then I can take care of them till they get big. I have seen these in containers and they are very cute! When would be a good transplant?

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:35 AM

I do have a problem NOT watering. I usually kill them with kindness.

I was going to grow seeds in a large container then transplant them. I will try not to water them (the cuttings) but don't I need to water the seeds till they get established? We do get plenty of rain, especially in the winter when we do not need it. So hopefully if I add more sand for good drainage they will be ok? They will get full sun.

This message was edited Mar 4, 2015 10:37 AM