When to sow the rest of my annuals?

So far I've sowed my hardy annuals, but when should I sow other plants that are more tender, such as Heliotropes and Pelargoniums? What about Celosias and Dahlias? I'm a Winter Sowing Newbie :)

Steven

Steven, I've just done my celosias and dahlias, so I hope it's ok. I'm also a newbie this year.

Ok, maybe I'll try some of them later today :) I've heard before that the Dahlias do really well when WS'd.
I'll be sure to only sow some of the seed, incase they don't grow.

Steven :)

Steve, remember last summer, "I WILL WINTER-SOW THIS WINTER, I WILL WINTER-SOW THIS WINTER...". We did it! I have many annuals - black-eyed Susan vine and tons of celosias and cleomes, oh, and many colors of zinnias too, most of which are trades, that I have yet to sow. Daturas and all kinds of stuff I've never even considered growing! I try to save some of everything, just in case.

xxxx, Carrie

Hi Carrie, I remember that now when you mention it :) YEAH! Do you have any sprouts yet?
I think I'm one of the few people left with no sprouts. Must check my containers tomorrow to see if I got any sprouts, I've been out with the flu.

I'm still planting! No sprouts, BTW. I DID WINTERSOW THIS WINTER! Not nearly toe degree that other people did, though. I just figured out that even if I have 99% germination, one or two seeds may not be all I want/need. Especially with stuff like lobelia and alyssum - I usually buy tons of the stuff in May... I need to start either sowing more to a container or get more containers somewhere. It's not the containers themselves; it's the darn holes!

Feel better, Steve. Get Well Soon!

xxxx, Carrie

Steven, I have not sown Celosia yet here in zone 7, but they will be included in my annual-sowing marathon this week. Last year I sowed celosia plumosa on April 13 and they germinated April 18. They got about 2 1/2 feet tall. I didn't know they would grow that big. What I found last year (my first to WS) is regardless of when you sow, the seeds know what to do. For example, some annuals I sowed early. They sat patiently and germinated when the soil was at the right temperature for them. I sowed more of the same type of annuals later and they germinated more quickly because the temperature was more to their liking from the beginning. Hope this helps ...

bjoan, that is very very helpful! I don't know how to make those little blue quotes, but as you say, "regardless of when you sow, the seeds know what to do. For example, some annuals I sowed early. They sat patiently and germinated when the soil was at the right temperature for them." I guess us newbies don't trust Mom N. enough yet.

xxx, Carrie

Annual seeds will sprout when their soil temperature reaches a temperature of 60 degrees consistantly.

Good to know, Shirley. Do you recall seeing a little snippet about someone who liked sald so much, he/she had worked out how to have fresh greens year 'round. Not all of them were lettuce of course, some were early spring and late fall varieties of spinach type things, and then there was something else exotic that storred really well.

xxx, Carrie

Shirley and Bjoan, Thanks for the tips on the soil, I guess I'll wait around another month to sow some of my annuals.

Carrie, Today I peeped through the holes on a WS container and I saw poppy seeds SPROUTING! The seeds had little roots coming out of them! I'm also nervous about those holes.........not sure when to make them bigger.....I'll probably end up frying my plants.
I WINTER SOWED.......AND DIDN'T MESS IT UP!...............yet....

Steven

ps: Thanks for the get well wishes Carrie! :

This message was edited Mar 18, 2007 9:18 PM

YAAAAY STEVEN! (Booooo me - too much snow and ice to even go out and check.)

xxx, C

When does your snow usually thaw? Must be anytime now :)
Here's a photo of Mr. Poppy.

Steven

We don't usually have snowstorms every Saint Somebody's Day. Especially in MARCH.

x, C

Yeah, thats the way it seems to go....We didn't get snow here till the end of January. I'd rather have it come early and LEAVE EARLY!

Can't we sow them in shallower than 4" if we keep them moist? Thinking longingly of those entire flats of lobelia I used to buy every Memorial Day...

xx, Carrie

I did.
Besides, aren't we going to do it our way anyway just to realize that it doesn't work?
I WS'd my Lobelia in one of those dome containers berries come in (only a couple inches deep), besides, I'll be moving it to a shadier spot once they sprout. They like shade....right?

Steven

Hmmm... sort of, or cool if they can't have maybe filtered sun. They're not as shady as, oh, I know, impatients.

xxx, Carrie

So, Steven, I went to the hated HD and they had these little dealies like Park's biodomes but for 6.99. So I got three. The first one I planted with lobelia nemesis dascia morning glories blackeyedsusanvine etc. But some of those seeds are so tiny! Oh my! Like dust, or like corn meal! Sometimes after trying to put one seed in each cup I would kind of brush my hands over the whole thing so I'll probably have lobelia and BESV in the same 1" square! But then I just set it outside in a sunny spot. I figured it's the same as WSing to them, if they're waiting for the soil to get to 60 degrees, they have a better chance in the sun than inside in a box labeled SEEDS! LOL!

I haven't sown my tender stuff yet, but will soon. The problem is that it was 80 degrees here yesterday (unusually warm for us this time of year), and it's supposed to last all week, but I know we will still have some cold weather to follow. Last year I sowed some too early (one was lupin Sunrise), they germinated in a warm spell, and subsequently froze to death later in the season. So far I've only done more cold-hardy stuff.

If I get time this week I might do a few of them.

Karen

I've got a couple of things coming along, some artemisia and yarrow and I saw 1 zinnia!!

I think I have 4 or 5 kinds of zinnias to do, but I haven't started them yet. If I don't start soon I won't get all the annuals done that I want.

Karen

I'm in the same boat as you Karen. I'm just starting to Spring sow my annuals.

boooooo still no germination as of today! I haven't spring sowed nastursiums yet, and I either LOST all my sweet peas or I THOUGHT I ordered them but didn't actually do it. That's probably it.

x, Carrie

Ooo, your seed domes sound nice Carrie :) Your story about the lobelia and the BESV in the same square made me think of my Clarkia, when I was sowing them in the greenhouse I must have spilt some seed cause now that it's warm out, I've got a bunch of clarkia seedlings sprouted on the dirt floor..

To date I have Shirley Poppies, Danish Flag Poppies, 'Siberian Blue' Dianthus and Clarkia. Those are my WS'd seeds that have sprouted so far.

Steven

To date I have nothing. Boooooo.

xxx, Carrie

You'll have something soon! As soon as you get a warm spell they'll start popping up!

Steven

I see we're all Zinnia crazy. I sowed 4 big planters of them last week and have tons of nice little sprouts. I'm still trying to figure out where to put the rest of my WS kids that are lunging out of their containers already!

Keep the faith Carrie!

I HAVE SOME SPROUTS!!! They're green! They're in containers I made! They're tiny and fuzzy and I have NO IDEA what they are. I ignored all the advice about paint pens and so on. I labeled everything with 1. a number in permanent marker 2. a number on the seed package 3. a number in my computer record. Well, my triple entry bookkeeping is fine but without a number on the container, I'm schrod. Waterproof marker isn't waterproof. Some of them are marked because I was lucky enough to write on the remnants of whatever label was there. But otherwise, what do I do now?

xxxxxxx, Carrie!!!!

Wait till they bloom! :)

I sowed 6 or 7 jugs of zinnias on Mar 31. They started to germinate today- 2 days later. I don't expect they're going to like the 19 degree lows this weekend. There are only 2 sprouts- both in the same container. They're the coral zinnias, the ones I want most.

Karen

I hope your Zinnias make it through Karen! I've got some 'Royal Ensign' Dwarf Morning Glories that sprouted and I don't know how they're going to like the cool/cold weather predicted for this week. It's supposed to snow.
However they are in a covered container.

Steven

Oh, I planted a lot of those too, Steven. One of those situations where the picture looks SOOO pretty...

Let me know what the deedlings look like, please?

xxxx, Carrie

Sure, I'll post a picture this afternoon :)

Here she is 'Royal Ensign'

I went outside just for you to take the picture.

Steven

Steven, is that a little seed mid sprout? Thank you!

xxx, Carrie

Yup he's freshly sprouted! This morning when I checked the temp outside it was 23 so I decided to take a peek at my sprouts............The clarkia is fine even though there snow on top of it and the dwarf morning glories are fine too, there is a lid on their container but they survived 23 degree weather!

Steven

Mine are still a vision/dream/leap of faith ..... no sproutage so far.

However, my Alonsoa meridionalis 'shell pink' came in the mail today! I first noticed mask flowers in a container Tomtom showed. Hers were red. I wanted them. Then amongst my wanderings I came across Alonsoa meridionalis 'apricot'
http://anniesannuals.com/plants/plant_display.asp?prodid=27&account=768468564
and decided I wanted it even more than the other one. It seems the only way to get it from them is by buying a live plant. Then, well you know how at hardyplants.com they say "come back often; our supplies are always changing", so I did,and this time they had Alonsoa meridionalis 'shell pink'. I ordered it 3.12 and it finally came!!!! I WS'd two sources of the red type, now I can do the shell pink, which hopefully won't be too far from apricot.

xxx, Carrie

Wow, those are really nice........I think I want them now!
Do you have lots of sproutage in your WS containers now? I've already been planting some out bit by bit. I'll probably be giving away hunks of seedlings too..........It's like slicing someone a peice of cake... "a peice for you, and OH, would you also like a slice?"

So, what WS'd seeds worked the best for you?
One of my most successful ones are what I've discovered to be Painted Dasies, they're growing very quickly and should be good sized within a few weeks :)

Steven

Most everything sprouted; nothing has yet bloomed or given any indication that it might. See http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/coldsow/all/! I dunno... some things I have lots of and some only a few. If I only knew what they were!

xx, Carrie