direct sowing vs winter sowing

I liked Garden City. We lived right next to the canal, and our next door neighbors were fantastic gardeners.. They were an elderly couple, but my brother and I use to hang out with them for hours..they were wonderful. Good memories..and was great having the canal to swim in right through our property.

Morning Glories are very happy to volunteer on their own. I let a bunch do their thing, but still pulled out quite a few.

True, mine will not set seeds this year I'm pretty sure. they bloomed TOO late. So I'll be DS some.

I grew Morning Glories and Japanese Morning Glories with wintersowing! I had a bad time with NOIDs but had pretty surprises in August and September! I hope they reseed.

well, reason I'm asking is ...ours have to be ready to go in march, so if I'm growing through the winter I should be ready...I did start some in January 1 year and got a good crop..by april the it's too hot, but they really went to seed..I have trays of them..and am thinking that I should start some now while it's still warm.. ..this is the time we plant the wild flower seeds too...

I kept getting sidetracked this year and never planted Blue Morning Glories till mid June. What a wonderful surprise. Five seeds turned into the most beautiful mass of hundreds of blooms in August, climbing all along the side of the potting shed and onto the roof,14 feet high. They are still blooming away out there. I am working on an all Blue garden around that shed,but I had no success with Blue Iris. I planted the bulbs at the recommended time and all they did was grow green and bushy,not a stalk or bloom to be had.

I heard (once, a long time ago in a country far, far away) that irises take several years to be ready to bloom. Congrats on your morning glories! There are lots of lovely blue flowers - sounds pretty. Take pictures!

x, C

Thanks Carrie, I will remain hopeful instead of throwing those Iris on the humor pile.
Good thing for me you posted about that far away country;) because I would have dug them up next year if they didn't bloom. I am getting ready right now to go outside to the garden and as soon as those "Glories" open, I'll get a pic. I can't post a pic for a few days till they send me the right disc to install the scanner,but as soon as I can,I will try to post one. I need to get a Digital camera soon. This computer is all set up for one. But right now, I still use an old 35mm.
x,Lucille

Plus, I like Iris foliage. Very structural, architectural. Maybe your morning glories could climb them?

x, C

Yes, me too Carrie, I like the leaves, ESPECIALLY the variagated ones!!! OH ya, those are my favorite Iris leaf. I want lots more of those, the flower is nice but its the striped leaves that win my heart and cry for a place in my garden!

Really, they cry for a place in your garden? Wow, I want plants to make noises in MY garden, too!

OH ya Carrie... when you shop for plants don't they speak to you? "Buy me, buy me... You'll love me in your garden...Put me on your buy list. Put me on your Wish list... buy me, buy me." They clearly call my name!!! LOL

After I first heard about wintersowing in another thread in another forum I contemplated trying it--thinking that was what I needed to do. However, after reading through this thread, I'm convinced now--I don't need to do any wintersowing. Hooray! No milk jugs to mess with and stack around on the back porch to trip over. How did I come to that conclusion? Most of you guys live in the frozen north where wintersowing seems to be a necessity but we have very little snow around here and our planting season starts around the last of March, first of April (except for unusual years like 2007!)

About those blue iris--never had any but I have grown other iris. You are aware that if the rhizomes are covered up with dirt that the iris don't bloom as readily? --my mother taught me this little trick years ago as a child. The rhizomes should be on top of the soil with the roots being covered. Forgive me if I told you something you alread knew. :o)

marsue, I am beginning to think I don't know anything.I feel like I should ask forgiveness for my ignorance. That might just be part of the problem with no blooms and that it may take more than a couple of years for them to bloom. I am going to take some of the bulbs that I scaled,what a mess I made doing that, and plant them shallow just to see what happens next spring.

And to the members on this thread interested in my pics of those "glories"? I went out all set to have brag photos and the day before yesterday,all the blooms shrunk up,turned light purple and died on the vine. I waited till the next day still hopeful they would come back. No such luck, but I'm going to take a pic of those sad looking "glories" anyhow. We had no frost and the weather has been very mild for Pennsylvania. I think maybe the plants have a specific life cycle from the time the seeds are planted no matter what the weather. Does anyone know if this is true? Next year I am going to plant the seeds at three different times and see what happens.

.

Posy, I have spent a little time over on the Morning Glory thread, it sounds like maybe your blooms have done their "thing", maybe even been pollinated so they are mature and done. That would not be a bad thing! My MG got way too much watering early on and although they grew like crazy were slow to bloom. I have only had blooms a short time and my winter weather is coming on quick!

Buy me! Buy me! Love me! This is nothing compared to when they beg,save me! save me! I spent more money at half price for half dead plants than if I'd bought them at full price while they were still alive.Sometimes the stores let me have them for a dollar just to stop my begging for their lives. Now, I don't go to the plant sections of stores after mid- season because all the half dead ones still call my name and want to go home with me.

LOL Posy, I hear you!

xx, Carrie

Well, I can resist the dying and neglected - my weakness is the glossy pictures of the plants I end up ordering . . . Thank god I have limited room in my yard or I would be bankrupt!

Oh, yep, them too! I buy them! Especially the bouquets of lisianthus from Burpee!

Of course! DH insists I buy more blue and purple lisanthus next spring :-)

So does mine - this year I planted the pink "bouquet". I wasn't ever happy with them, though.

Carrie, I planted lisianthus in large 20" pots - 4 plants to a pot. I then placed the pots on my driveway - the only place that gets continuous sunshine.

They are still blooming.

Hmmm, very pretty. It looks almost like a rose. I need to research this plant. Is it a annual?
Teresa

Yerp. Burpee sells them in pink or v=blue; I have some seeds around SOMEWHERE but you need to start them inside in November!

x, C

I love lisianthus. I wintersowed them one year, but it took too long for them to bloom. Last year it didn't work at all. This year, I was going to start them indoors, but I forgot to buy seed. Michaela, would you include some seed in the swap for me?

The Morning Glories are in full bloom again! Most of the foliage is shriveled up and I am trying to get a pic again. I don't understand at all what is going on outside this year. Those Morning glories stayed open all day yesterday and this morning they are still open. I checked the Iris that didn't bloom and there is one almost ready to bloom. I thought my imagination was working overtime!The only thing I did to them was scale and then plant the separated bulbs,put compost around them which was just like loam as it is six year old pine needles. Well whatever is going on, I am enjoying the surprises of Mother Nature to the max.

I've got an Iris that will probably bloom in November - just like last year!

I won't have any seeds, Anita - I keep deadheading to get more flowers lol - but carrielamont had some seeds earlier this year - give her a try. :-)

I have a beautiful white iris in bloom right now - though it did not bloom at all this spring - go figure.

I planted LOTS of iris that were given to me last year and only one bloomed. I tried to plant them "on top" with root buried but I think they needed more time to recover from the transplant and the soil has shifted and they are covered now (some were on slight slope). I can't decide whether to "lift them" with some sand etc or let them be one more year. I REALLY want some iris in BLOOM!!!

Any advise?

Iris do not like being moved. Give them another year to settle in.

Anita, Michaela, I misplaced (read lost) my lisianthus seed! It was in a special envelope marked "LISIANTHUS SEED" so I would stop opening it and trying to wintersow it. I promised it to a few DGers and then felt like a bum when they sent me their seeds and I had nothing to trade.... But if I ever find it, Anita, I'll let you know. I'm not even happy with the Burpee plants I bought this year.

xx, Carrie

Ouch, that is a disappointment Carrie. I hate BUYING plants and then not being happy with them!!! I have gotten so spoiled trading on DG, I'm really NOT happy about paying stores prices!

sorry -- havent been keeping up with this thread....

this was my first year with MG's [i have GrandPa Ott and Heavenly Blue] I winter sown them and had an outstanding germination rate ... i probably had 75 seedlings. the bunnies ate most of them, but probably 10-15 grew to giants!!

i have lil ones popping up all over my lawn, at least i know they will die over the winter, and i have a ton of GrandPa Ott seeds... not as many [small handful] of Heavenly Blue seeds. I think they bloomed a bit later, as currently i have tons of blue flowers and not as many purples. I'm really hoping i get a ton more seeds from the HB, as they are just stunning. [plus i've already been asked for and promised seeds]

so -- yes, they do WS very well. I'd have to go back and check my records, but they sprouted pretty quickly and grew like weeds .... since i did not support the vine, they got all twisted amongst themselves [i will do that differently next year]

BUT -- i have also been tossing seeds, for direct sow for next year. I'm sure they will do fine, as seeds that fell early this year sprouted and i've seen lil blooms on them too.... but those most likely wont go to seed.

Posy -- Mine are pretty much staying open all day too. I did notice at 5.30am this morning they were closed, but they are open most of the day, especially if it is a cloudy day.

tomorrow we are expecting sun... i should try to snap a photo... but first I'll scour my HD to see if i already took some pics earlier in the season.

found a few images of my morning glories:

I went back to my records;
the seeds were sown on Feb 22, 2007
germinated on Mar 23, 2007

here is what they looked like on April 1st

I do not recall when i planted out, I'm assuming first week of May since it was mild here, or last week of April

here was June 15th

then July 12th

a few months later it was soooooo big, that it covered the 4O'clock, directly in front, spirea next to it, and all the plants on the left. It pulled the arch thing all the way over to where it was practically on the ground.... so i whacked the top half off and tossed it out in the field [had to be about 10 pounds worth] and the flowers actually were still blooming, not connected to the plant for another 3 weeks!! my neighbor and I were over harvesting the few seed pods that were ready.

so -- that is why i dont have a lot of seeds off the HB. It did recover and is in full bloom again, but i've only found about 5 seeds pods so far.

Thanks Carrie. Morning glories defnitely w/s. They also germinate in the yard like nobody's business. A pain? Yes. Worth it? Yes.

Great info and pics tcs. Thanks. This is the first year I have been this interested in Morning glories. Mine are Heavenly Blues. I just didn't expect anything from them because I planted them so late and they did so well,it surprised me.

I am going back and look at the close ups of your pics right now.

figured I'd go out and snap off a few more pics....

and look who i found
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