Didn't believe it , but it worked

Just want to tell all of you who told me it would be ok to WS. IT WORKED. I have more plants than I'll ever be able to put out.!!!!
Also, those of you who told me the pudding cups were too small, : They are still cute and I still like them, but they are too small. They've just gotten root bound really fast. Ought to be happy with all ;the roots, huh. I also figured out I hate peat pots. The little pellets are ok, but an 8 oz styrofoam cup is better for me. The roots don't grow out of it so soon and I can cut down the side of it and cut the bottom out and plant the whole thing, then go and get the stro out someday. I just leave about half of the styro on them

Now, it that ok?

But anyway, I bow to you all. You are all my hero's and I will always listen to you. Well, unless I've taken my stubborn pill that day"

Yay! Lorraine! Happy Saint Paddy's Day, and may the luck of the Irish be with all of your little winter sown seedlings.

Lorraine, that's so great to hear of your success!

I feel the same way about the peat pots. they just don't work for me.

Now, you know I'm not giving one away,I'll plant them even if no one can walk up the walkway!!! After all that worry? Those babies stay with me!! lol

Happ St Paddy's day to you too, Susan. My great grandfather was from Ireland, so I got a little bit Irish DNA!!

Congratulations, Lorraine! I've enjoyed reading about your experiences with WS.

I thought I would do that. When you plant them that way, do you just thin them later? Knowing me, I'd go out to thin them and end up trying to take them apart to plant!!

I will probably try and find something nice to do with leftovers if there are any, but I'll have to let someone else load them up. I'd have to stay inside, greiving and crying!!!

Congratulations! I love reading these "I didn't believe it" threads from newbies evry year.

No real need to thin hos. Maybe one or 2 naturally die off out of the hunk, but you'll never miss them. Last year, planting out the last jug (campanula carpatica), our heat and drought had already started. I was hot, tired, and thirsty. I couldn't find another place to put babies, every inch of my beds seemed already full. I dug one big hole, cut up the jug and slid the whole blob of soil filled babies, and stuck the entire gallon jug sized blob into the whole. They stayed like that all year, the thick clump growing in the exact shape of a gallon jug.

Karen

That's too funny

It's too early for me to be laughing (out loud!) Karen! I can completely see me getting to that point, though:-))

I don't know what I was thinking putting so many in a container. Guess I thought half wouldn't come up. That's a laugh, they ALL stinkin// came up I think. Course soon as I plan them, they'll start dying off!!

Anyway, Hooray for WS. Now all I have to do is find a place to keep all those containers I trudged around looking for .

Lorraine:

Will you really feel like thinning out your hunks of seedlings after planting your 99th container? Sheesh, let Mother Nature take care of thinning your seedlings out naturally. Only the strongest survive anyway.

As for keeping all your containers from season to season, I find that the plastic becomes very brittle and unuseable. I rather start with a new batch of containers. Just my 2 cents worth.

I know you are right, I just know I'll never get enough milk jugs, but I'll throw these away and start alittle earlier next year. I didn't think about them cracking, but I can see how they would
Thanks for the 2 cents. Now, you just need to come up with the other 98

Like Shirley, after their WS use last winter I found that my various plastic milk jugs and containers got brittle--plus some of them I had to cut apart to get the seedlings out. So I reluctantly threw out the old containers, glad that I had at least gotten an extra "use" out of them. And then I started collecting "gently used" containers from friends and family for the next WS season and soon I had more than I knew what to do with! I'm up to my 97th jug, with more to go!
It might be an illness (lol)!

We all say that Shirley, but then we see those seeds, and we're off

I have shown great restraint so far this year. I think it's 31 jugs and just a few styrofoam cups. I do want to do quite a few tender annuals, though, and I haven't started those yet. With 2 years of wintersowing behind me, my beds are pretty full. That is, they will be if all the perennials come back after that brutal summer last year. I'm counting on quite a few losses, seems inevitable to me.

Karen

I think that is very true of many "seasoned" winter sowers. Each year I've winter sown fewer and fewer perennials. This year I'm also focusing more on half hardy varieties & annuals. I've become more selective on the seeds that I do sow. My beds are getting very full also. It happens to all of us eventually.

Yes, winter sown seedlings are smaller, but they catch up quickly in very short time!

Winter sown Primrose, "Danova Pink" blooming on the 1st day of Spring.

Congrats Lorraine! Isn't it the most fun when your realize how easy it really is, and that it works! Thats why wintersowing is such an addiction; its so easy to keep doing more containers all winter (to get us through winter!), and then there are more babies than we know what to do with in spring. I check my containers every day, part of a happy routine.

Everyone who sees us thinks we really are nuts!! Standing there looking into the hole in a milk jug trying to see if there's little green thing in there

Honestly, though, last summer was just so fierce with extreme heat and extreme drought. I really don't expect all of my perennials to survive winter. Gaillardias rarely do anyway, even under the best of conditions. I had 5 new echinaceas that i started last year and I really hope they make it.

Now, with the extreme rain and snow that we've had in the last couple of weeks, my yard is a swamp. Only one gaillardia out of many shows any sign of life. Also see a little green on a few larkspur, rud hirta, blue flax, agastache, digitalis, some columbine, potentilla, maybe a few others. I hope some more of them wake up soon.

I was hoping that my Black Prince snaps would overwinter but I see no sign of life now. Oh well, time will tell, and that time should be pretty soon if it's going to happen at all.

I generally sow my tender annuals in April. It's still pretty cold here with nights predicted in the low 20s. I'll probably get started on the annuals in a week or two.

Karen

No, probably not much if you're standing there in your jeans and sweatshirt calmly peering into a jug. It's when you're out there with your flashlight, in your nightgown and slippers, in 30 degree weather, at 6 a.m, and start screaming and jumping up and down like a nutso.

Karen

Where do you plant your gaillardia? That's one of those I've never planted before.

Oh yeah, Kq, also going out in a thunderstorm at 29 degrees to cover some of the little darlins up. Then going out in the same thunderstorm the next morning to see if they survived. Heck with the poor cat that got stuck outside and wouldn't come in cause she was scared to come from wherever she was.

Thanks, CapeCodGardener! Seems everyday something else is germinating now, but with the number of containers out there, the chances are good, LOL. Dahlias are very cold sensitive, and one I've only started indoors. I am trying something different this year with some more tender annuals; I've wintersown several in jugs and placed the jugs in one of those little 4 shelf greenhouses with the zip up covering. Hoping that extra layer of protection will keep them safe till planting time. Of course, after last years awful April freeze I'm paranoid. Much of the east experienced that freeze last year; was that when your dahlias froze?

Yep, I did the same thing last year, threw moving quilts over them and they had to stay on them for a week. A few things along the edges still got zapped. I'm mainly doing zinnias in the little greenhouses, I'll keep you posted how it goes.

That Davona Pink primrose is lovely, I must do more primula, they're one of my favorites. I'm looking for large flowered varieties that will be perennial here. The small flowered varieties seem to tolerate our hot summers better.

Shirley, where did you get your seed?

Lorraine: Most sources say gaillardia are short lived perennials or annuals, and they like sandy well drained soil. I have heavy clay soil, always wet all winter. I think that it is the problem with them in my yard. But while they're here, I do love them.

Re: that last freeze in the east last year: that was Easter weekend. Here it stayed below freezing, day and night, for 3 days I think. I left the perennial seedlings out there in their jugs and they were fine. Any tender ones which had sprouted I stashed in my garage (unheated) for the weekend and didn't lose anything. In fast, nothing missed a beat.

Many wintersowers lost a lot of seedlings that weekend, though.

Karen

I lost some too, but have a lot of seeds and want to try them again. Should I start them inside even tho it's warm here?

Which plants do you plant them with. I've never actually seen one, so I can't imagine how they look

Thanks for the kudos!

The Primula seed was from Swallowtail Gardens.

Thanks Shirley! I really like Swallowtail Gardens! This was my first year ordering from them.

I'm I correct in assuming you wintersowed them last year? Do you have hot summers? If so, I've got to get some!

Primrose, "Danova Pink" was winter sown 1-31-06.

We have hot and humid Summers, but I planted the Primrose in a shaded area near the house where it stays moist. They must like it there because they've come back each year and are putting out new growth.

Oh my! What a vivid range of colors! Davona blue is to die for too. Something odd I noticed in their description though, it said they were a hardy biennial, but yours is on its 3rd year. I've never heard of biennial primula, perhaps its a mistake.

Mine act like perennials, but perhaps they behave differently depending on what part of the country they are grown in. Yes, Danova Blue is lovely. They've added a lot more color choices now.

Hi Lorraine,

Gaillardia looks wonderful mixed in with other native Texas wildflowers. Here is a picture I took in early April last year near Goliad, Texas. The Gaillardia is growing wild with Dakota Vervain, Winecups and if you look closely, white Prickly Poppies.

That is so pretty, is it a meadow or close to your house. I have a big clearing right before you go into the woods here and I thought about cleaning it up and planting it.
This particular place stays pretty sunny most of the time, but I'm sure gets some shade. How about there?

Hi Lorraine,

We took a trip to Texas last spring and wandered around on a lot of back roads to look at all the wonderful wildflowers. That pic was taken in front of someone's ranch and the spot was pretty much full sun. If you'd like to take a look, here's a photo show I made of our trip; it's mostly old buildings and wildflowers.

http://www.photoshow.net/watch/th6YC3cg

I spent my childhood in Texas and enjoy going back from time to time. The people, the scenery, the birds and the wildflowers are all just incredible.

I love to come to Calif. Guess the grass is always greener, but the color of the ocean and driving Hwy 101 from San Diego into all that beautiful redwood. Lived in San Diego while my husband was in Marines and stationed at Oceanside. They sent him to a school in San Diego. Spent all our spare time driving from here to there. I have so many pictures of there.