Any blooms yet on your WS seedlings?

'Pink Beauty' lavatera:

Bachelor's button:

Baby blue eyes:

'Milkmaid' nasturtiums:

Woo Hoo! Look at those beau-ti-ful wintersown blooms! YES!! You might want to give your California Poppy a bigger & deeper container to grow. I think it would appreciate it.

Yeah...lol. I'm still trying to get my stuff out of my containers and into the ground! I did lavatera, larkspur, cleome, and a mystery plant today. Tamara

I love the California Poppies!! Here's one of mine

one more..

Jeepers . . . the only winter sown plants that are blooming for me are linaria and baby's breath. the Bachelor Buttons have buds - but no blooms.

Everything else is still small. I think the trick might be to plant them in the gardens much earlier.

Anita: Your wintersown Poppies are gorgeous! I especially love the delicate shading on the pink one!

Seandor: Next year plan on wintersowing more annuals so that you get instant gratification from the blooms. Don't forget that all the perennials that you've planted in your garden this year will be in bloom next year! So don't dispair! Planting out early sometimes helps, but I've even left some of my ws plants in their original plastic containers (because I just ran out of time to get them all planted before the summer heat & humidity descended on my area) and because they were so root bound, I forced some to bloom like Tricyrtis. I was absolutely stunned! So the key is just to experiment and see what works for you!

Thanks! I like them too. I also have some nicotinia and nasturtium in bloom as of today.

I wintersowed something called red poppy mix. I don't know how to tell if they are annuals or perennials or biannuals (apparently there is some of each in the mix). Any way I have planted these in amongst blue delphiniums. And time will tell . . .

can't wait for the pictures!

Heck - I can't wait for flowers!

Seandor,

I have learned a lot about gardening from DG, but I have even learned more about geography - for instance, I didn't know eastern Washington State was desert. In your case, I had no idea that MA & CT and western PA had such COLD weather so late into April & May. I'm not sure you can expect blooms so early with such cold weather lasting so long into spring.

On the other hand, yes, you need to get those hardy annuals like Bachelor Buttons, Calendula and petunias into the ground as soon as they get their 2nd set of true leaves. They can all take freezing temperatures, at least down to 23 degrees, for a lengthy time -- in our case, it was a WEEK of below freezing temperarures and I had all these in the ground, uncovered and unprotected. (Actually, as I am proofreading this, the petunias were not put out that early because they weren't big enough, but they were out early, and they were very very small.) I would not be surprised if some of them could take an entire winter as baby seedlings if you could keep the leaves from covering them and smothering them, and the rabbits and vermin from eating them. I know pansies are in that category, at least in Indianapolis. I wish I had taken a photo of my planted out seedlings, but most people would wonder why I was posting photos of the ground, since they were nearly invisible, they were so small.

It's depressing to have nothing in bloom when the garden centers are filled with blooming plants.

My Clarkia just started a few days ago, but it is one that likes cool weather and it will only last just a short time, I'm afraid. The garden centers were selling it in bloom a full 6 weeks ago. Here's a pic showing it with Agrostemma 'Milas' which is a violent purple. I am impressed with 'Milas because it is tall, makes a good cut flower, is enjoyed by the sulphur butterflies, and stands up except well. Of course, we've had no rain or wind, so that probably helps. LOL! The color is somewhat off-putting, tho. The fog is a dirty camera lens, sorry.

Suzy

Seandor,

I have learned a lot about gardening from DG, but I have even learned more about geography - for instance, I didn't know eastern Washington State was desert. In your case, I had no idea that MA & CT and western PA had such COLD weather so late into April & May. I'm not sure you can expect blooms so early with such cold weather lasting so long into spring.

On the other hand, yes, you can get those hardy annuals like Bachelor Buttons, Poppies & Calendula into the ground as soon as they get their 2nd set of true leaves. They can all take freezing temperatures, at least down to 23 degrees, for a lengthy time -- in our case, it was a WEEK of below freezing temperarures and I had all these in the ground, uncovered and unprotected. Petunias can take freezing weather and frosts, I'm just not sure how much and to what degree. I put them out when they were teeny-tiny, even at the 2nd set of true leaf-stage, they are miniscule.

I would not be surprised if some of the HAs could take an entire winter as baby seedlings if you could keep the leaves from covering them and smothering them, and the rabbits and vermin from eating them. I know pansies are in that category, at least in Indianapolis. I am going to try the Rudbeckia hirta this winter and see if it will overwinter as a baby seedling. I wish I had taken a photo of my planted out seedlings, but most people would wonder why I was posting photos of the ground, since they were nearly invisible, they were so small.

It's depressing to have nothing in bloom when the garden centers are filled with blooming plants.

My Clarkia just started a couple days ago, but it is one that likes cool weather and it will only last just a short time in this heat, I'm afraid. The garden centers were selling it in bloom a full 6 weeks ago. Here's a pic showing it with Agrostemma 'Milas' which is a violent purple. I am impressed with 'Milas because it is tall, makes a good cut flower, is enjoyed by the sulphur butterflies, and stands up exceptionally well. Of course, we've had no rain or wind, so that probably helps. LOL! The color is somewhat off-putting, tho. The fog is a dirty camera lens, sorry.

Suzy

I think I was waiting for the seedlings to be the size of plants you buy at a nursery. I was amazed when people said they were planting little tiny seedlings. (lol) Of course, I finally had to plant little tiny seedlings too - otherwise I would have to chuck them. I was surprized by (1) how long the roots were and (2) how quickly things started to grow again once they are in the garden.

Next year, I will plant stuff earlier. Heck, I might even try petunias again :-)

BYW, the picture is fabulous.

So, in Indiana - even though you are a zone colder, you warm up faster?

as long as this thread is still running, I thought I'd post this little nemesia, blooming in it's baggie. I'm still working on getting my perennials planted, so I've been ignoring the few annuals I have. but this was so cute, and there were only 6 of them, so I planted them yesterday

It took two years for the fire pink (Silene virginica) seed I gathered in the wilds to finally bloom. The wait was worth it.

These are my W/S petunias. They did much better than I had planned! ;0)

These are W/S mystery flowers, knocked out of a milk jug by the girly pumpkins.

Seandor, Yes, our last frost is usually April 12-15, though it could go all the way to April 20. We have a much longer spring, since daffodils peak the 1-2 week of April. You guys have a much longer fall, tho. I always figured somebody in Zone 6 would automatically have their last frost a week or10 days before mine, and zone 7 would be 2-3 weeks before mine, but I am finding that is not necessarily so.

grampapa -- darling Nemesia. Glad you got it out of the see-through pot. hahaha.

hcmcdole - any chance you could save some seed of your Fire Pinks for a very, very good trade? Pretty please?

G6 - is your mystery flower Gaillardia? If so, it's a really pretty one! I had some seeds of 'Burgundy', and 'Goblin', but no dice on any seedlings showing up. The one thing both kinds had in common was they were garden-collected seed I rec'd in a swap or trade. I ended up having to buy plants from Bluestone's 1/2 off sale. LOL!

Here is my WSd Texas Bluebonnet. I only got 2 plants to bloom size from the many seeds I sowed, but it has been a tough spring!

Suzy

here is Heavenly Blue --- I guess the bunnies left me 1

i think i started with over 20+ seedlings (I'd have to go back to my notes)
there were more GrandPa Otts -- but i had more of those to begin with.

here's a bigger shot.... when i looked more closely, there are actually 3 MG's down there ,but this is the only one that is really climbing - or that has bloomed.

not thinking how big it is going to get... i planted a 4-O'clock in front of it. Hopefully by the time the 4-O;clock is full, the MG's are way up the trellis and blooming.

Suzy~ Yippee!! the world still goes around, you're right, double checked my W/S list, they're gaillardia. They did well and I had to move some to other beds and containers. Hmm, maybe it was a good thing the pumpkins kicked them off the patio ( they thought they were being helpful by cleaning up the mess!)

Congratulations everyone! I just love your wintersown blooms!

Here are a few of mine:

Aquilegia, Origami Series, "Pink & White"

Dianthus, "Amazon Neon Purple"

Dianthus, "Carnation Pink"

Dianthus, "Sooty"

Strawberry Foxglove

Larkspur, "Gentian Blue" with Salvia, "Rose Queen".

Lynchnis coronaria

(If any body wants some of these plants, please let me know. I'm yanking them out of my garden at the end of this season.)

Sedum

Shirley, I think Hart told me that Lychnis coronaria is a biennial (although PF lists it as a biennial)... so perhaps they'll yank themselves out of the garden at the end of the season, so to speak... I've got little self-sown volunteers around my plants plus a few from last year, so hopefully they'll continue to be a presence in my garden (I really like them).

Shirley,

your's look great. my dianthus are still about 2" tall *sigh*

Shirley,

I really like that Lychnis also. Would you mind sharing a few seeds? I have the all pink one which is hot pink and it is a bi ennial in my garden but I would miss it if it disappeared totally. I usually get a few seedlings from it which carry it on. Sometimes I have to dig seedlings out of my lawn to save them :) I love the white with pink centers :)

Kim

Shirley, I would love some too. We can discuss trading/postage options when you have a chance.

Shirley, What year did you WS those flowers? They are a lot bigger then mine!

Suzy

Thanks everybody! I'll be more than happy to share the Lychnis coronaria plants with everyone. I think I would have preferred them in the middle of my garden border, but I planted them in front of Climbing Rose, 'Don Juan', and they are taller than I realized, plus they need to be staked up a bit too.

Suzy: I wintersowed the Lychnis on 2/5/06, germinated on 4/2/06 and they bloomed this year.

I've got a lot more wintersown Dianthus blooms, put for some reason I don't have plant tags to go with all of them. So, I can show you lots of pictures, but I don't have all the names.

tcs1366: Your Dianthus may be small this year, but it's putting all its energy into growing roots and increasing the size of the plant. Next Summer you will be rewarded with its beautiful dainty flowers.

Ooh I really like the "Sooty" Dianthus. I will have to look for those...or better yet the seeds. ;-)