Confessions of a Wintersower - I bought some plants.

Actually, I bought A LOT of plants. One tray from Amanda at Graceful Gardens, a boxful or two from Joyce Hazzard, a pile from eBay ....oh yeah, a bunch from High Country Gardens. I feel like a traitor to the cause. And of course, flats of lobelia and alyssum, which I have identified in my WS fields, but which are nowhere near ready to bloom.

Part of this is definitely the not being able to ID my seedlings, part is not being able to WS callibrochoa, part is being way too impatient for flowers, results! I am proud of how much follow-through I displayed in this project. I'm still planting things out! I don't know whether they're the right size or shape containners, but I am planting out. Not into the few beds I have - I have mostly containers. Oh, some from Bluestone(they have my favorite on sale!) and some from my new enemy, Big Bad Burpee. Some from Springhill - just to replace the lilac tree my DH mowed down last year, or was it two years ago?

But could somebody tell me I'm not a bad person? I feel so guilty. This year was supposed to be different. I guess I'm disappointed in the way the annuals did - or didn't - turn out. I couldn't see any point to sowing many of them in Jan. - March, and then I sowed them in flats, which alternately got too wet and too dry. How do you sow blue lobelia well in soda bottles? Even if you can manage to sow only a pinch per container (which was very hard for me - too klutzy)? I didn't plant anything like trees or bushes or even grasses. But I wanted to have flats of lobelia and alyssum by Memorial Day, I wanted to show the producers with greenhouses that my mini-recycled-soda-bottle-containers were just as good.

xxx, Carrie (hanging head in shame)

LOL Carrie... i was going to go to a "plant sale" today
(it was from the Horticulture department at my kids school) but i actually held off because i have so many seedlings... but i was tempted. I know my MIL is getting me "some yellow perennial" for Mom's day tomorrow.
and i did order some plants, but they are things I can't grow from seeds (geeze -- i can't even grow petunias)

but -- dont feel bad.... the weather has been gorgeous and we want that instant gratification of COLOR in our gardens.

I'm sure i'll end up getting some sort of colorful annual soon.

terese

Don't feel bad...I bought a lot of plants too. I don't have even one flower yet from the over 70 containers I WS. And frankly, I'm not willing to wait until June or July to have pretty, decent-sized plants for my garden--not when the stores are stuffed with them! For instance, I planted a hanging basket with 5 fuchsia seedlings that are only 1-2" tall. By the time they start to look good, it'll be time for the first frost! I'll still WS some things next year, but NOT annuals that you can buy at the store. Tamara

Well, thank God it's not just me! We have a "short growing season", and I guess you need a real greenhouse (or a Blue Fairy, or are you guys too young to remember Pinocchio)? I know what you mean about your fuschia seedlings, Tamara, I planted out a bunch of BSV seedlings (I hope) that are 2" - 3" long, but I don't know what to do to make them healthy and 2 feet long and blooming!

xxx, Carrie

I always buy some plants especially the flats of groundcovers and annuals as I ws mostly perennials - but I don't mind waiting for those. But the trade off is that I don't have to buy as many to fill up my garden.

I can't tell you how relieved I feel, although I, er, DID buy perennials too. I thought I was going to be able to totally avoid all nurseries forever. Guess not.

xx, Carrie

This is my first year wintersowing and even though I'm totally thrilled with the results, I've still been buying annuals and perennials; our growing season is REALLY short and it's been an awfully long winter - and I need the instant gratification of color which I won't get from the wintersown stuff for quite a while yet....

Joanne

I loved germinating stuff - I think annuals that grow quickly might be okay - persian jewels, bachelor buttons, etc. But the petunias I started inside are miniscule.

I also think wintersowing perennials simply makes sense (and cents!) - since they are aren't going to bloom the first year anyway.

As a result, I have probably 100 delphinium - 20 or so foxglove,about 100 wallflowers, plus sweet autum clemantis, yarrow, etc. For more plants than I could ever afford to buy.

Obviously, I can't use them all, but I can share. I will definitely be winter sowing in December - and probably all year around. Currently, I have lavendar seeds on the front veranda.

I bought plants yesterday for my front bed. I want some color out there early. I'm also sticking a few WSown seedlings out there, which will do well eventually and fill out the bed. I bought red and purple annual salvia and I will have some more WSown ones to add soon. I stuck some tiny WSown snapdragons and zinnias in there yesterday. Yellow columbines from last year are blooming in that bed now.

Karen

Obviously a lot of my dissatisfaction with wintersowing comes from the screw-up with my labeling system, and is my own stupid fault. Also, we had a very weird winter. But I LOVE container plantings with annuals, so, I shall continue to buy them until I get (wishwishwish) a greenhouse that's wheelchair accessible! And before, I couldn't germinate a seed if my life depended on it. Now, I AM CURED! I CAN SPROUT SEEDS!

xxxxx, Carrie

Don't feel bad Carrie, I've been buying plants too :)
I really shouldn't buy any with 60-70 containers in my backyard filled with seedlings that I have no room for.........but thats what gardenings all about!
And like you, I have no idea what half of my WS seedlings are.........What to do?

Steven

The two of us... you have no idea what half your seedlings are, and I can only ID one or two (out of a lot - maybe more than 70)! Plus, I guess I didn't understand that the perennials we were planting wouldn't flower for a few years. Which makes sense, but when you look at the threads of WS blooms, note that they occasionally say "last year's" or "2 year old", because I didn't!

xxx, Carrie

I planted out my first winter sown plants yesterday - itty bitty things they were - but they survived the night - even though it got quite cool I planted bachelor buttons, babies breath, linaria, and persian jewels. I hope that by July, they will be blooming for me. Frankly, I am grateful for the delay - this is the first year for this garden, and there is so much prep work.

Also - DH loves petunias and we usually buy them, but by August they look a mess. This year I am hoping that the petunias will look great in September - of couse, I may not be able to wait until July to make the hanging baskets. :-)

Carrie: But those perennials are so worth waiting for. I'll show you a few of mine, all wintersown last year.

Karen

My favorite columbine

Verbascum Southern Charm and perennial poppy

Seandor: Congratulations on planting out some of your WS seedlings. Actually, the cooler weather is preferable for the seedlings because they won't be stressed out by the warmer temps and won't require as much water to keep them moist.

Karen: What a beautiful Spring garden you have in bloom. I can't believe your Verbascum, "Southern Charm" in already in bloom! Nice perennial Poppy too. I especially like your beautiful two tone Columbine. I'll be sure to post my flowering Columbine this evening.

Thank you Karen, all beautiful. All inspiring... I guess I thought that in spring, when I took the covers off, blue balloon flowers would be popping out in April.

xxx, Carrie

Ok, so maybe I know what half of my WS seedlings are..............but thats not including Spring Sown plants.......I got 4 72 plug trays sprouting so far and I don't have much of a clue whats what, one of the plants looks just like snapdragons........but I didn't plant snapdragons! AArrgh, how am I going to plant my containers when I don't know what anything is?

Steven

Maybe we need an "Identify These Wintersown Seedlings" thread. LOL.

I have a few containers with two different types of sprouts in them; and I only planted one type in each container. I do know what they are though! Poppies. Those teeny little seeds snuck in everywhere.

Joanne

Joanne,

Your comment about tiny poppy seeds reminded me of something hysterically funny. I was getting completely frustrated with lobelia seeds, they're SO tiny and (for me) impossible to separate. Someone advised mixing them with sand and putting them in a salt shaker. Didn't have any sand handy, so I used salt. Didn't have an extra salt shaker, so I used the one we had allowed to become empty since we're not big salt eaters. It actually worked pretty well, especially for when I mixed lobelia and alyssum seeds. (Figured I'd wind up combining them, why not do an up-stream intervention and combine them from the start!)

Then my older daughter came home for the weekend this past weekend. She's the salt user in the family. She's shaking salt on her steak, and she looks at me and says "Mom, is this salt?" OMG I never emptied the salt shaker and cleaned it out! She had been shaking salt mixed with lobelia and alyssum seeds onto her steak! None of us non-salt-users had needed the salt since wintersowing! Good girl that she is, she went and got the big container of salt, put more salt on everything and ate it, seeds and all.

xxx, Carrie

BTW Steven, do you expect to have annuals blooming in time?

I hope to have annuals blooming, I find most things usually flower around the beginning of July. I like to mix bought plants and ones I grow myself in the same container, so theres always something of interest untill the home grown ones start blooming.

Steven

Carrie, I guess your daughter likes her steak "extra crunchy". Too funny!

Well, come on, it wasn't that crunchy. And my "lobelia mix" is coming up!

xxx, C

I s'pose I'd better put my 2 cents in as well....or maybe I should make that my $89.00. Yes, I've been keeping track of what I've spent on flowers this year, BUT if I compair that to last year and I continue to show restraint I'm still way, WAY ahead of the game. I'd be embarrassed to type the dollar amout I spent last year on something that's life span can be counted in months.

I am sold on winter sowing and I will definitely do it again next year, but let's face it. We plantaholics with such short growing seasons cannot be expected to go cold turkey!

LOL! Cold turkey!!! I get it! Cold zones... cold turkey! LOL!

xxx,
Carrie

No cold turkey for me! I get paid on friday!

Carrie, if I hadn't spent $(##*@( on roses for my new rose garden I would be doing exactly what you are doing :0). I did buy a half dozen annuals, just to perk up my herb garden, and 6 herb plants in addition to what I w/s'd. The rest of my garden budget (not much is left!) is for shrubs...something which will make a larger impact. I bought a nice 'Summer Wine' ninebark for my new cottage garden bed. the tiny w/s perennials will have to do.

Uh oh. Once I opened the flood gates the water just came gushing in.

addict. [n] someone who is so ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction

And does an addict not come up with every excuse under the sun to justify giving in to that addiction? Ahem.

I only needed a few accent plants and some heucheras right?

Right. But of course once I was in the "big town" I had to check and see what everyone had didn't I? I mean with the price of gas and all it will be weeks before I get back, so it only made sense to gaze upon all the lovelies while I was already there right?

Right. But you know how it goes. You find just what you need at one store only to find it's a buck cheaper at the next. But just because you already bought one doesn't mean you shouldn't take advantage of a good deal does it? I mean you'd be letting the high-priced guy "win" if you didn't patronize the bargain guy right?

(OK, let's just make it a given that everything I say will be right and we can speed this up a little). Then you get to the third store and "Holey Moley what IS that plant? Why I've never seen anything like it!" No, no, it certainly wasn't on my list, nor was it in my budget. But I surely couldn't pass up something as unique as a Horn-Tailed Escarcious Flutious could I? Especially one with varigated lavender and magenta tips! Why that plant alone would make me the envy of the neighbothood...nay the entire town!

So after hitting Lowe's, Menard's, HD, Meijer's AND Walmart I returned home with a car full of plants....Which of course included the enviable Horn-Tailed Escarcious Flutious (with varigated lavender and magenta tips) as well as not one, but 4 different heuchera plants.

*sigh* The only Cold Turkey here is the one I'm about to pour for myself.

Too funny, Lala_Jane! And so familiar! And I think I saw a Horn-Tailed Escarcious Flutious at my bird-feeder yesterday!
Carrie, I'm so glad you started this thread about buying plants despite doing the WS thing. Fessing-up is good for the soul. Besides, going into a plant nursery in Spring is entrapment! We're innocent victims of all those gorgeous flats of blooms.
Now that I know I have company in my WS apostasy, I'm heading off to Agway again this morning. And Park Seed just started their internet sale of annual plants. . .

"Besides, going into a plant nursery in Spring is entrapment! We're innocent victims of all those gorgeous flats of blooms."

Oh yes. A true addict will come up with any excuse under the sun to justify their addiction. LOLOLOL! Welcome to the club CapeCodGardener. ;-)

I know, I know, I know. (About to look up Horn-Tailed Escarious Flutious in PlantFiles) I haven't been buying all that many perennials (like Heuchera, except I didn't sow that) because I still have faith that one of my NOIDs will turn out to be Monarda and another will turn out to be Helenium and another, Gaura. And I am confident that HD and/or Lowes only have the garden variety Monarda (pun intended) and no Gaura and no Helenium.

But I feel for you, brothers and sisters. This is a good time to lose your faith. Later, when it's summer, and all of our NOIDs are showing themselves for what they really are, and our annuals are blooming (finally), then we'll be in all the papers.

xxx, Carrie

You have my interest piqued...but I can't find any info anywhere on Horn-Tailed Escarious Flutious. Is there another name it's known by? What's the botanical name? Tamara

Oh Tamara I'm so sorry. The Horn-Tailed Escarcious Flutious exists only in my imaginiation. I made it up just to show that I could come up with any excuse possible to buy a new plant.

(But if Carrie wants a cutting I'll surely send her one).

II do, I do, I want a cutting! My address is in the list. When I found it PlantFiles, I knew it was the perfect addition to my container garden! What can I trade you in return?

xxxxx, Carrie

My sister doesn't call me Gully Gullible for nothing! lol Tamara

Hi, everybody--just checking in on the WinterSowers. Thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

Sorry to hear there is a bit of disappointment but I understand-- I didn't do a very good job of making permanent labels my first year and had a mess to deal with, too, so I just put them in the ground and hoped for the best and not a lot bloomed last summer.

But this spring I do have some fabulous foxgloves blooming, a wonderful bed of campanulas/bell flowers, various herbs and lots of daisies getting ready to bloom from those little seedlings and I am thrilled.

One thing, though. Since I didn't WS last winter I don't have any of my biennials seeding and ready to replace the hollyhocks, foxglove, and campanulas for next spring....

And I can't possible spend any money on plants now that I know I can WS more interesting selections myself!

I'm wondering if it's too late to set out some seed flats now?....

You might have to chill some of the seeds in the fridge for a few weeks, but really, it's only the cost of a package of seeds to find out.

Thank you Tamara. That I was able to spin such a yarn and make it sound believable in the bargain is a compliment indeed. :)

Tobasco, my disappointment is minimal. True I am disappointed that my blooms are delayed, but overall my WS was a positive experience. I truly am amazed that seeds I threw to the elements in the dead of winter are alive and thriving. I look forward to winter sowing again next year although I too will be more selective with my seed choices.

Carrie started a fun thread and I have been having a good time with it.

Thank you thank you (taking a bow). I think it was the detail of the variegated lavender and magenta tips make Lala so credible. On wintersown.org she talks about growing annuals, but I didn't read all that carefully. Apparently I have to wait two years to ID some of my plants?!

xxx, Carrie