Making it harder than if has to be

One of the reasons I love WS so much is that is easy easy easy. I plant my seeds then, put them in the shade then forget about them until spring, when I start watering them until they can be planted. It seems to me that many people are really making more work than needed. Like covering them up if the temp is going to be to cold. Moving them in the sun to the shade and back again. Things like that. I was just wondering if anyone is like me and just leaves them alone and they do fine or are people having trouble NOT leaving them alone.

I think we have been trained to "baby" our seeds that many are doing so without really having to. If I had to do all the work some of you guys are doing I would never have done it in the first place!

What are your thoughts?

Well, you see, I didn't put them in the shade. I assumed we were trying to make mini-greenhouses, so I was very careful to give extra ventilation on warm days and closing stuff when I thought it would be too cold.

so far, the only thing that has germinated was the foxglove - that was completely covered in snow until a few days ago!

So - now everything is moved to the front veranda - morning sunlight then shade. I will try not to fuss so much (though I dearly want the delphinium and larkspur to germinate)

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I just wondered why - but you already told me in another thread - but you aren't the only one "fussing".

On the other hand, I have yet to be ravaged by slugs or the dogs taking jugs to "play" with, so I am a bit casual about my containers. But later on after I plant the plants in the garden and enjoy them for the summer, I sure "mourn" them if they don't come back next year!

Just 2 days ago, the temps shot up to 82*F, with heavy rain forecast. My wintersowing dates were 2/19, 2/20 & 3/7, so only 6 containers had sprouts. Well, I thought I really needed to take off the tops with those temps, but didn't look forward to a diluge washing out the containers, so I moved them from the open patio out back to the roofed porch in front. Our house is on a hill, I fell, knee landed on bricks, and fortunately, nothing is broken and I can move okay today albeit sore. So, I'm all ears for any advice - anyone know what I should have done differently?

PS - with the tops back on, and knowing how primrose seeds love sleet and snow, DH and I just moved our wintersown containers through the house this time back to the patio and all body parts are still intact - that route is much less adventurous than the hill, fortunately, since we're having a sleet storm now.

Seandor, perhaps you and I are having larger temperature swings than folks in Colorado? In 3 days, we've gone from 82 to a forecast low of 25 tonight - I don't see that we can ignore our containers with that kind of difference in temp over such a short time. But, I sure would like feedback on this, too.

Seandor, my foxgloves germinated, too, with dwarf Centaurea cyanus sprouting on 3/11, Aubrieta deltoides on 3/12, Malva 'Zebrina' on 3/14 - these are approximate dates, because my notes are downstairs and I'm still babying my knee...also, it looks like the beginning of a root appearing on the jack-in-the-pulpit seeds.

I know this is o.t., but 2 days ago (high 74*F), with patches of ice still here and there in our garden and on local trails, there was an incredible frog bacchanalia by a trail we walk on - they were just emerging from their thawing, winter ooze in a bog the trail passes by and their noisy, enthusiastic carryings on certainly announced that spring is here. Perhaps frog emergence could be the annual milestone signifying that it's time to sow hardy vegies like lettuce, mustard, etc. directly in a pre-prepared part of the garden? Perhaps that would apply to hardy annuals like poppies, too?

We have varied temps here. Often we get weeks of weather in the 70's then a week or two of temps in the teens and snow. Lots of sun and very dry, which is why I put my containers in the shade. The first year I did winter sowing, I had seedlings come up and worried because our last frosts are not until mid May - but every container that had seedlings survived. But I don't take off the top half of the containers until May, if I took them off I'd have to water them all the time! I do not want to do that. I don't even touch them until May, when I do start watering them and planting. I never have them in the sun because at our altitude, I might as well put them in the oven! And even if it gets to 76 like it has this week, it's still pretty cold in the shade. I never "cover" them with extra stuff, even though we get temps below zero at night sometimes and blizzards occasionally, because they need the moisture and the germination rate is still high. Of course I am not about to move 80+ containers up and down a hill! LOL. On the other hand I have to have things easy - I don't have the energy to coddle any of my plants in my garden. If it dies then it had no business being in my garden!

I used to live in Maryland and I know you get pretty cold winters there! And much hotter summers than here in Colorado. However, I do know that in Colorado it is much drier and the sun can be brutal.

Thanks for the encouragement Mobi. This is my first year wintersowing. I have about 35 containers in the shade. For me this is a do or die. I feel bad when plants don't survive, but I thought this method would protect them when I couldn't be there. I planted them so they could fend for themselves until they reached transplant size. I do fuss over my garden, but these seeds won't get any fussing. I have so many seeds and not enough room inside so this was a great way to start as many flowers as I wanted and have them ready to plant in the garden when the soil is ready. I will make sure they are not too dry or too large, but my expectation is to only move them from the spot they are in now to their permanent home. So many people do wintersowing on DG, I can't help but think I am going to happy with the outcome. So, barring the wild turkeys or the squirrels chowing down I will get there. Cyndie

Hmmm. I see your point about shade ameliorating the temp swings. If I had a flat route to a shady spot, I'd try it, but there are no flat places here except the patio out back & porch out front.

One thing that has helped this moving-back-and-forth business (only had to do it once so far because of those heavy rains) is that my containers are small and I have been able to wintersow 11 or 12 different kinds of plants in one small turkey-roaster pan from the dollar store. This means fewer trips. I'm experimenting with the "loot bag tent" method ( http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Loot_Bag_Tents.html ) and a variation on pot-within-a-ziplock-baggie using recycled qt-size yogurt containers instead of the pot (I made the roofs out of chicken wire). Faster-germinating seeds are going in the loot bags (6 germinations so far :))and longer-germinating seeds are going in the yogurt containers, because I'm thinking that a more rigid container would be better for seeds that might take longer to germinate. Prunus mume seeds each have one 2-liter soda bottle to themselves and since many species within the genus prunus need to be washed and cleaned at least 3x a day for 7 days in order to germinate, I let them enjoy the torrential rain - no moving there. The one genus I wanted oodles of plants from was poppy - so there are 8 milk jugs with 8 kinds of poppies that I will move heaven and earth if needed to see those poppies bloom.

There's a garden book written by two Colorado-ans: Passionate Gardening by Springer and Proctor. I can't recommend that book highly enough to gardeners anywhere - so much is covered and Proctor is such a hoot and both he and Springer have been so ingenious and creative in how they meet their local challenges. They do something I do that not only keeps plants' roots from drying out but also maintains air flow around their crowns and stems: plant among stones. Proctor said he was surprised at how successful one of his gardens was - he put flagstones down on plain old clay dirt and tucked in low creepers between those - no fluffing, drainage, zip - and the plants were happy - I see the same thing with dianthus growing over stones vertically here. If I just grow them in our clay-ish ground without stones, they are miserable shadows of their inner possibilities. I'll bet similar results could be achieved with gravel, so stones aren't necessary.

So, there's a lot a Maryland garden can learn from Colorado gardens - and, I guess - vice versa, where universals pertain.

Well, I'm leaving these containers alone until temps get into the 40s again - then I'll increase the vents and do another slug patrol and "fuss" away (Seandor, maybe you'll do better than I will in the non-fuss department). And when Maryland humidity sky rockets in a few weeks, I'll be green with envy over Colorado dryness.

PS - Mobi, have you visited that rock garden outside of Denver whose director is Panayoti Kelaidis? It really catches my imagination to be able to walk through paths of blooming alpines while snow-capped mountain peaks loom "nearby". He was a major contributor of seed to the this year's seed exchange at the North American Rock Garden Society ( http://www.nargs.org/ ) (probably has been for years). I received some wonderful seeds from them - they have seeds for an enormous diversity of habitat, including eastern woodland - in addition to arid desert/mountain places - and many larger, cottage-garden-worthy plants - too numerous to list here.

Hi Cyndie - our posts crossed in cyberspace - I'm beginning to see I'm a confirmed fusspot - you and Mobi are setting a great example.

Hey Karen, I think we need a scientific experiment... The fussers vs the non-fussers. Maybe the plants are enablers. They satisfy whatever need we have. I think they may be more flexible than humans. Ya think? LOL

Well, it's clear to me who's the fuss-ee (plants) and who's the fuss-er (moi) in my garden. I haven't participated in NARGS' seed exchange before, either - they must have sent plants from countless different habitats - this armchair traveler is going to have a ball vicariously experiencing all those different habitats through these plants and will have quite a window on just how flexible they can be.

I really hope to see primroses growing on our shady hillside. Since it's dry, I expect the challenge to accommodate their needs is going to bring out the fuss-pot in me big time. Actually, I'm hoping by digging in humus with a few of those hydrating crystals, choosing the most dry-tolerant primroses, and growing them in communities of compatible plants to retain soil moisture (like ferns and Omphalodes verna for primroses) that I might have some success. Primula sieboldii looks promising, because it goes dormant in summer and perhaps will "snooze" through summer dryness.

And EmmaGrace's morning glories - over seas of pewter and gray mist, subtle tints of mauve or velvety plum float - if that isn't fusspot food, I don't know what is - lol.

So, this fusspot already has slug bait, chicken wire, deer netting, Havahart cage hinges oiled - I believe I just declared War!

I love this thread, Marylanders and a Mainer, my two favorite states. (sorry Seandor :)
Trying to limit my fussing to checking for seedlings every four hours or so. But I'd be fussing a lot more if I had a bunch of NARGS seeds.

bluspiral, this thread might interest you:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/701917/

I've read about the NARGS seed exchange. Keep us posted as to how it goes. Please post pics. I have very fast draining rocky soil and I am sure I could benefit from some of those varieties. I read over some of your wintersowing techniques. Keep us posted as to what works. My first try technique is a ziplock bag over a rigid container like what cottage cheese comes in. I got them at a local salvage store. Since there are only 2 of us except when the kids are home from college i don't have milk jugs.
It looks like you love MG's. I am sad to say they are invasive in my yard. They came in with the soil that was filled in around the house and I have spent 3 years pulling them up. They look lovely, but I am afraid they will take over.

So, Claypa, Are you a fusser or non-fusser? :)
Or, Maybe, at the risk of hijacking the thread a Mainer or Marylander? Tell us your techniques and share your knowledge. I apologize if I am covering old ground, but I am fairly new to several things, including things that may have been posted previously. But I love learning from others. Karen, Mobi and Seandor have a lot to share and i am sure you do too. Cyndie

I grew up in Md. but lived in Maine for years. Leaving there makes me a Mainiac. I knew gardeners in Maine who wintersowed and I was flabbergasted. The only stressing I've done is guilt over not getting more seeds in pots, and outside where they belong! And checking for sprouts...

I've had limited success with seedlings indoors, losing whole trays to damping off, for example. When I happened on Dave's Garden over and over looking up info on different plants, I noticed the wintersowing forum and realized that's what my friends in Maine had been doing. They were using deep trays with a large sheet of plastic over the mass of trays sitting in a compost bin, but I mostly use water jugs and two-liter bottles, and a few trays in plastic bags. I just read over the wintersown.org pages and saved jugs all last fall. I guess I don't have much in the way of insights to offer, but maybe in spring when I have to plant all these seedlings. We'll see !
Mike

I am sure glad you posted this Mobi!

I was just going to post my own thread titled "Truth in Advertising".

I thought the beauty of the wintersowing was ya just sow and leave them -- then I read aaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllll the posts about moving, covering, tenting, taping, untaping, moving again, and all the other nonsense, and I was just about ready to pull my hair out! What happened to the sow and come back 3 months later to your seedlings?

This ole gal is leaving them to their own devices. I have had one jug/set of Texas bluebonnets rot from dampoff and 7 jugs of other stuff germinate. They are all hardy annuals and perennials similar to bluespiral's list. Then I've had a lot of deli containers of Godetia and Clarkia germinate and I'll plant those as plugs when they get their second set of leaves.

My main complaint is that they are too slow to get going. If I had sown them inside I could have had sprouts in 90% of the containers by now. Oh, no, wait, slowness isn't my number one complaint -- my number one complaint is that it looks like a ghetto trash slum around here. So I bought a plastic portable (up in March - down in May) germinator greenhouse. I'm cutting all the tops off the containers and putting the bottoms on the shelves in the greenhouse so they can get going. I have to water the jugs, so I figure watering in the greenhouse is just the same. This was my first and last year sowing in milk jugs. Not my last year wintersowing probably, but the last year of milk jugs!

Suzy

I guess I am more or less a non-fusser type.
I did get upset when the slugs got into my pots and ate the nice newly germed seedlings.
But other than that, I really don't/didn't do much at all.
Yes, it isn't as cold and snowy like you all back midwest/east, but we did have a fairly cold, icy, wet winter here in the NW.
Is interesting to read on what you all do tho.
Carol

No offence taken Claypa . . . I know heaven exists in British Columbia LOL. I am definitely a fusser. But it's my first year winter sowing. I was a fusser with my first child too. When I had the second child, seven years later, I was a lot more laid back :-)

I'm just a no fuss gardener in general so that applies to my wintersowing also. One of the nicest things about wintersowing for me is that there are not many restrictions or rules to get the plants going. It works well with my schedule and the plants don't seem to suffer if I take a laid back attitude. When I tried seeds indoors (many times!) at some point in the process it just didn't work and I lost most of them.

Once I set my containers outside I am basically done until April. Then I start watering and opening the vents as the weather gets warmer. I don't bother to close them again, even if it's going to be cold. My watering consists of the garden hose with an adjustable nozzle attached set on "fine" run over the containers for a few minutes. That's all I do until May when I take the tops off.

I just want to share that my wintersown plants were the best in my garden last year. They caught up to and surpassed my other plants purchased at local nurseries. Don't let their small size (compared to nursery plants) get you down! After a month in the ground, they start to take off and quickly catch up to everything else. In the dry heat of August when other plants were looking tired and sad, my wintersown ones were still looking good.

I don't know why it happens like that. I find the process interesting. Maybe it's because they aren't heavily fertilized to bloom early so they spend time growing a good root system. I think being outdoors growing in the climate where they are eventually going to be planted probably has something to do with it, too.

bluespiral, did you plant perennial or annual poppies? I've heard that if you ws annual poppies you want to plant them out early, before they get too many roots because they don't like their roots disturbed. I can't say from experience though as I haven't tried poppies yet.
here's a great link on the wintersown website about poppies.
http://wintersown.org/wseo1/Life_of_a_Poppy_Bed.html

I haven' visited that garden, I'll have to see about that.

I have also found that my ws flowers were very strong and after I planted them, the first year, I didn't lose one, not even when the dog was eating them. Now the next year a few didn't come back, but it could be that they just weren't happy in my garden. And many of the perennials bloomed the first year as well. They also outdid any store bought plants, even though they were smaller at first. Some plants, I has soooo many of and they looked great- I would never have been able to afford all those plants.

illoquin, you do have to be patient, but you don't have to harden off anything! I guess the beauty in this method is that you can do a LOT of seeds. And I was just remarking to my DH that I am glad that the neighbor's can't see all my jugs because it does look trashy!

I definitely fall into the "non-fussy" category. I sow the seeds in milk/water jugs, put them on our deck and there they sit until they are ready to plant out in the garden. Yes, I do water them when they appear dry or if we have not received any precipitation. If they don't survive, for whatever reason, then they don't belong in my garden. This might seem harsh to some of you, but it's called "survival of the fittest". Wintersowing is suppose to be fun & easy, so keep it simple.


This message was edited Mar 17, 2007 11:14 PM

Claypa - I've filed that link & its sublinks in my favorites - wonderful! - to get back to later - howdja know I love enchanted gardens? Today I'm hoping to refrigerate some daylily seed - yes - I'm too big a fusspot to entrust these treasures to Mother Nature outdoors right now. I know many have successfully done it around here, but given the possibilities within these crosses, I'm reallyreally curious to see all of what results.

Cyndie, I'll post a list of my NARGS efforts in a few days - still sowing. We don't generate many milk jugs either and no soda bottles, so I knocked on a few doors of neighbors and they've been gathering bottles & jugs at work or at church and I do believe before this season is out I just might become Queen of the Local Dump - lol. I plan to grow on the daylily seedlings I don't have garden space for in those containers. I don't feel too bad about that, because - consider the roots of the classic cottage garden - peasants without piles of wealth to distract them from the important business of growing their own gillyflowers among their cabbages and hollyhocks around the privy with washtubs and pitchforks stored on its exterior walls - and how many old shoes did a large family generate that made great planters for pansies and hens-and-chicks?

Oh - and morning glories! Those morning glories you & I have done battle with are only 1 or 2 kinds out of legions - There are 56 genera in the family Convolvulacea, and thousands of species within those genera and thousands upon thousands of varieties within those species - there's vines you'll mistake for boa constrictors in tropical forests and graceful little dainties worthy of a Victorian tea party ( http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1456/index.html ) and some are trees and others are shrubs whose stem is swollen at the base like the pony tail plant (swollen stem is called "caudiciform"). Some have tiny, silvery-gray, woolly leaves with bright dime-size blue flowers on low shrubs native to the American southwest ( http://www.lib.ksu.edu/wildflower/evolvulus.html - I murdered 10 of those seeds last spring by not stratifying first, so wintersowed 5 a few weeks ago in February - gift from Ron_Convolvulaceae). MGs belonging to Ipomoea nil or Yojiro (interspecific cross between I. nil x I. purpurea) will not take over any garden in zone 5 or zone 7, but they absolutely will take over your heart - rose and chocolate: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/681709/ and then there are the blues/purples like Ipomoea 'Murasaki' and those double "higes" - http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/701809/

Mobi, on February 20, I wintersowed: Papaver rhoeas 'Fairy Wings', Cedric Morris, Mother of Pearl, Angel Choir and Eigth Wonder - all with a huge range in a very limited, subtle part of the palette - Fairy Wings is supposed to be shorter than the others, Mother of Pearl's pastels are supposed to be overlaid with a hint of gray smoke, and Angel Choir and Eighth Wonder are doubles - many colors in these strains not seen in more typical Shirley poppies. Plus, the double black poppy (P. somniferum 'paeoniflorum); P. alpinus; P. nudicaule 'Meadow Pastels; Eschscholtzia 'White Linen' and 'Jersey Cream'. From the 2nd round of NARGS came a pink, double P. nudicaule and a pink P. radicans, plus I found P. atlanticum 'flore pleno' (spelling) I had misplaced, so those will be the first to be wintersowed in the next batch. The ones that might come back from their roots next year could be: Eschscholtzia (California poppy) and P. nudicaule (Iceland poppy), but the Iceland poppy might best be treated like a biennial here - perhaps it behaves as a perennial in its native habitat where summers are less muggy.

Since I like to follow hardy annuals (usually sown 6-8 weeks before last spring frost) with tender, late summer flowers, I'm planning on smuggling morning glories into every bed and along some paths, so those are the places I'll be transplanting "hunks of seedling" poppies from their wintersowed containers - hopefully in a couple of weeks. Doggonit - March into April has always been the best time to direct sow hardy vegies and flowers here, and you'd think it was February right now, even though we're going into our third week of March - the hill behind us is totally under a sheet of ice (it's 2nd one since February 13 grrr). Sooo - this brings up another point in favor of wintersowing - if you cannot direct sow at your "usual" time of the year, you can busy yourself wintersowing into milk jugs instead and when your personal glacier finally recedes, you'll have "hos's" ready to go.

Shirley, when the temperature got up to 82 or 83*F this past week, did you open your containers or increase their venting or were they already sufficiently vented to your satisfaction? And, if you did open your containers or increase their vents, did you let those heavy rains pound them? I'd be very interested to know what you did that day for my own future reference. As soon as the rain turned to the ice/snow mixture late on Friday, we trundled our containers back out to the patio because I knew that, if the primrose seeds loved that stuff, so would the others. We avoided the hill and came through the house between porch & patio.

Thanks all for sharing your comments and links and know-how - much appreciated.

I am in complete agreement with Mobi's first post. I'm trying this for the first time and aside from moving some containers that ended up directly in the path of the raingutter overflow I haven't touched anything. Don't plan to either until I'm ready and the plants are big enough to deal with. If it doesn't germinate, I'll try direct sowing or give it another go next year.

When I read the instructions at wintersown and a few of the early posting here, I was sold immediately because it made sense. Same thing nature has been doing for years, just preplanning the results by choosing what seeds to sow. Easy!
When I explained it to a co-worker he immediately started to try to complicate the method. Of course, he does that with everything but I simply couldn't get him to understand how easy this is. I am a procrastinator so I didn't sow as much as I would have liked to but I'll be on the ball next year:LOL:

Shirley, I can't tell you how helpful your advice is being to me - especially in concrete terms of the situation posed by last Wednesday through Friday, from 82*F to heavy rains to sleet storm at this time of year and with sprouts already. I've filed your post in my favorites so that next winter, if this situation arises:

I will leave those containers alone :)

Y'all are going to turn me into a fuss-free gardener, yet

Thank you

I think that Shirley might just be my long lost twin! My containers have been sitting in a fairly shady spot on the west side of my house and the only thing that I have done is to pick them up once and a while to peek for seedlings. I have not moved, vented or watered them. Then again...I don't have any sprouts so maybe I am not one to give advice!! ;-)

- Brent


This message was edited Mar 18, 2007 11:10 PM

I think I'll be fussing a little less this year than last, my first. But if we're getting monsoon rains I might get them under roof for a day or two, or put the snap-on lids on the sterilites to limit the flooding.

The next few weeks are the "fussy" ones with spring monsoons and late deep freezes. Then I'll just open or remove the lids and figure that the babies can survive on their own. And when plant-out time comes most of the fussy folks will be too busy planting out to worry over those still in containers.

Yesterday I put down cardboard layers for the foundation for 2 new lasagna beds, but I don't really have the ingredients yet. The lawn moving will start soon and then I'll be ready to start building the actual beds. It's also almost time to start moving some perennials and continue clean-up on existing beds. Also time to fertilize and prune emerging perennials. All these things take time so those milk jugs will be moving down on the priority list!

Karen

blue: Glad to help! The first year people tend to fuss more than subsequent years. You see for yourself that wintersowing works and therefore you don't fret (as much). If you haven't sown ornamental grasses, veggies or annual seeds yet, this would be a good time to do so. However, I would wait to do tropicals until the middle of April.

Brent: Too funny! I guess that would make us fraternal twins!

kqcrna: Yuph! Monssons, late freezes, & freak snow storms can still happen well into Spring. However, the beauty of wintersown plants are that they are plenty hardy to survive whatever Mother Nature throws at them. If you're able to move them under a roof or awning during torrential storms, that's great. If not, covering them with a temporary tarp works well too.

Do you put anything thing like compost or manure on top of the carboard layers? Will your new lasagna beds be ready for summer or fall planting?

Lots of spring clean-up to do in existing beds, plus pruning perennials and fertilizing. Spring is a very busy season, so that means less time to fuss over your wintersown sprouts & containers.

Shirley: I don't have a good (i.e. free or cheap!) source for manure here in surburbia so I haven't used it. I've already used my homemade compost in another area so none of that on hand either. And I have never found anything in bags that resembles real compost regardless of what the label might say. In the past I have used mostly leaves and grass clippings with a few coffee grounds or any yard waste that comes along. It has worked well for me. Those I've done in the past I've built in the fall and in spring I planted in them. In this case I will be planting pretty soon after building (no grass clippings here yet) so I don't know what state it will be in. I figure decomposition should be faster in spring than winter here where it's frozen for months. A lot of people report planting in lasagna beds immediately, so I'm hoping it works out OK for me. Time will tell.

Karen

Mobi,
I know for me, in my zone, I have had more success WS with no fuss. I used to just sow seeds in large uncovered flats and put them where they'd get both sun and rain. Then I basically ignored them. In the Spring I always had lots of babies.

For the past two yrs I've used the greenhouse method- using containers with clear tops, or clear bottles. Also, misting them when they dry, etc.... My results aren't nearly as good as with my " ignore method"! This was my last winter to go thru all that hassle. I say let nature take its course with seeds in the winter. In nature they sure aren't coddled- LOL!


In fact just today I discovered that in the last two days I had new cukes to sprout and then to "cook" in their containers. If they'd been uncovered, they'd be fine. Now I've got to re-sow. :(

Here's one of my "cooked cukes".....

another vote for no-fuss here. I got sold on the w-s because I kind of thought they would take care of themselves. I'm still waiting for things to thaw and I have no germination yet, so the uncover or not uncover is not an issue. but I won't be moving things around much. peeking at them every day is fun, so I can do that ;0)

Everything that had germinated before that 82*F to 20-something*F drop that occurred within approximately 54 hours last week thrived - loved the ice storm, too. I don't believe anything I ever germinated indoors looked as healthy and vigorous as these babies at this stage.

My notes are down stairs and my knee is still sore, so off the top of my head - from a 2/20 sowing, with germination beginning on 3/11 with dwarf Centaurea cyanus (spelling?), then Aubrieta deltoides, then radical (root) appearing on jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphylla spelling?) (thank you Enya), to Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina' (thanks Ansonfan), to Antirrhinum 'Black Prince' (thank you Laurie1)- all before that ice storm - they now look great after that temperature fluctuation and ice storm.

On 3/18/07, after the ice storm and with snow still covering our back slope but not the containers, seedlings were beginning to sprout from a 3/7 sowing among Papaver rhoeas 'Fairy Wings' (thank you Mr_Crocosmia), P. rhoeas Eighth Wonder, and P. somniferum var. paeoniflorum 'Double Black Peony' poppy.

So, I know you folks know you're right, but I'm still suspended in the middle of my "leap of faith". It really is amazing to me to be able to work WITH Mother Nature like this. Do any of y'all ever feel like you're midwives to a hgher level of horticultural consciousness? You should - lol

I have sown 37 containers with my last 10 going out last week. I have at least one sprout in 15 of my containers. I saw on the forecast that the temps are supposed to get near 80 this week. Are other Mid-Atlantic area sowers venting their containers? It is looking like I should start opening up some of the flaps on my containers.

- Brent

Brent, I'm south of you but probably half a zone colder (mountains). I put all mine out in early February with the caps off (2 liter bottles) and they seem fine. In a few days we have another cold spell coming, freezing temps at night so I'm a bit anxious since I have some germination. Moisture wise I think mine are fine but they would be cooking lately with warm temps without venting.

Brent: With the weather forcast to be in the mid 70's today, but the thermometer registered 84 degrees, I pulled back the tops on containers that had germinated. I do have vents on the shoulders of all my containers, but now that it is officially Springtime, I'll be enlarging the vents until eventually their won't be any tops remaining.
Also, I'm planning to plant out my Poppies by this weekend and put them in an area that receives only morning sun. Last year, they fried in a Southern location by our split rail fence.

I just Sow 'n' Go............ http://ourlittleacre.blogspot.com/2007/01/sow-n-go.html

Kylee

Weather!!! Drives me nuts. I have quite a few containers that really need to be planted out. Yesterday I did plant out 2 chia pets- clarkia and alyssum. I have quite a few more that need to go out. It's been really unseasonably warm here- 70s during the day and 50s at night. My jugs still have tops attached at the hinge but folded completely open. On Tues. the hi is supposed to be 80; on Wed a hi of 45 and lows in the low to mid 20s. Some of these babies are so big they're all over the sides of the container. That's sure death in those cold temps, so those jugs will have to go into the garage. I'm not too concerned about the ones where the plants are really tiny. Most of those are perennials anyway. And by letting these things get so big in the jugs, I'm really asking for trouble in transplanting things like nasties.

Karen

with the winds we had yesterday (I was afraid the small containers would blow away) I was out there closing up lids (twisty tie) and putting the small containers in cardboard boxes or laundry baskets.

then mid week (wed- next week) we are expecting a cold spell, as most in the mid-west, great lakes region are too.
I've tossed around the idea of putting them somewhere, garage or sun room, but then again -- this will "harden" them up - right? and i should leave them be?

since they are on my front porch, eastern exposure -- they are protected from most of the winds and pounding rains (my poor lil sunflowers actually held up to the barrage of high winds and rain yesterday) -- i think the only ones i'm worried about are my Morning Glories - as they are my biggest seedlings, and i don't know enough about them to know if they are hardy enough to withstand the cold snap.

Karen: If your seedlings are getting so large that they are hanging over the sides of your container, it sounds like they need to be planted out in your garden or moved to a larger container. They are very hardy at this point and I wouldn't worry about them.

Terese: Your perennials should have gone through several cold-warm-cold cycles and be tough & hardy. I wouldn't go moving them except for when it comes time to plant them. I would leave them be.

Your Sunflowers should withstand the pounding rains & high winds that you had yesterday. However, your MG's are more tender. Perhaps you might move them closer to your house under an eave to protect or cover the MG containers with a big piece of plastic that is weighted down with bricks. Moving the MG's to your garage, if you have the room, works too during a storm.

Actually, I think these plants are tougher than we give them credit for...... Even if they get pounded from the elements, they should bounce right back.

thanks Shirley -- I moved even the sunflowers last night, since we were expecting 2" of rain today and possible hail (luckily, after the first bout of rain & wind, it all dissipated) but they did hold up in yesterdays weather.

the cold and wind that is on the way.... since the winds will be out of the west & northwest... i'm leaving everything on my covered porch. It will still be cold, but the seedlings will be out of the wind. The MGs I will be putting in the sun room as i've already lost a few babies and dont want to lose many more.

I'm just hoping when they say "over night lows in the 20's" that it means 29° not 20°

Shirley:I realize that the big seedlings are ready to plant out. As I said I've planted out 2 jugs of flowers so far. I would have planted more except for the low temps of 19 this weekend... I don't expect the 2 already transplanted to beds to survive at those temps. Also some seeds are planted in pots, their permanent homes. They're never being transplanted anywhere.

Karen