Good luck, and let us know how it works out for you!

Karen

I really want to try winter sowing this year but I have a question. When should I start planting seeds? Is there a cut off for temperature, like don't plant until temperatures are consistently below 50F? I live in NYC. Right now the daytime temps are in the 58-63F range and night temps are in the 40s. Is it too soon? I'm not sure I want to wintersow if I have to wait until January. There might be too much snow/ice to safely get to my backyard. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I wait until January and I live in NJ and our weather is pretty much like yours. We may be a bit warmer but I think you will be safe...wny not wait until just after the holidays. That is what I do. Just a thought. Enjoy and good luck.

According to Trudi Davidoff, wintersowing season begins on the winter solstice, Dec. 21. Days are shortest then, and will begin to lengthen. Like Jacquie, I never start until January, when the holidays are over, the junk put away, and life gets boring.

" There might be too much snow/ice to safely get to my backyard." You can do all your prep work (like cutting jugs, planting, taping) in the warmth of the house, but you do have to get them outside when you finish. It's not always easy here, either, but we can always get out of some door or other.

Karen

Oh dear. After the holidays is when I start my seeds indoors and that pretty much consumes all my time in the winter. I get great germination indoors so now I'm wondering if it is even worth it to do winter sowing. If this coming winter is like last winter I won't be setting foot in the backyard until late March. And my neighbors won't be pleased with seeing milk jugs in the front yard all winter. Maybe I'll just stick with what I know. Thanks for the information!

That is the beauty of winter sowing. You put them out and don't have to do anything with them until the thaw!

Karen

Elena, try a few jugs to start. You won't believe how easy it is! Says the woman who did 150 jugs her first time and had exceptional germination rates

I've done lots of wintersowing and plan to do a lot this year. One new thing though is, I want to wintersow daylily seeds. Has anyone done that? Seems like it should work fine, but I'd love to hear from anyone with some experience growing them this way.

Kyla, I've never tried wintersowing daylily seeds, or any other seeds for that matter, but I've heard that the germination rate is much lower. How much lower, I have no idea, but if you have a few spare seeds, it would be worth a try. I hybridize daylilies too, and would love to know how much success you have. I'm just not brave enough to try it, since I want to get as close to 100% germination as possible.

Decided I should ask when a good time to start wintersowing is, and saw that the question had been answered for the most part. I'm in a warmer zone than those of you who start after the holidays, so I'm thinking February would be a good time? I'm fairly new to my area, having moved here last year, so I'm not sure what a normal winter is. Last year wasn't normal, since we suffered through that brutal cold air that everyone else had. This year has been much nicer, and much warmer. I've read a lot about timing. Too early, and the plants will start growing before they should, and will possibly die when it gets really cold. Too late, and you may have wasted your time. I'm not sure that there is a true date for starting, but I'm hoping that someone can tell me if I should wait until it is freezing at night on a regular basis?

My other question was about containers. I have oodles of coffee containers that I've saved for other things, but I have too many, and need to recycle them, so I was wondering if they can be used for wintersowing. I'm thinking that they can't, because they aren't clear, but if I was to add plastic over the top, instead of using the black lid that they come with, would that work? Some sun could get in that way, but I'm not sure if it would be enough.

I've sworn every year for the past 10 years that I was going to give this a try! I need to do it! I've got seeds and containers and potting soil, and a green house that has had the cover removed. I have no more excuses!

Natalie I've used black nursery pots for W/S, I don't see why you couldn't use the coffee containers with plastic on top. I use baggies on top of some of my containers.

If your temps are staying cold during the day it would be okay to start...the containers act like a little greenhouse so if the sun is warm and the container warms up they will germinate. I start some of mine in the next few weeks, but wait a bit for the tender annuals.
What are you going to try?

Thanks Ronnie! It is still kind of warm here I think. We'll, not warm for me, but I think it is too warm to start just yet. It's going to get horribly cold next week, but it will warm up again to the 40s, if the predictions are correct.

I'm going to try a little bit of everything, I think! Probably not any tender annuals, but everything else. I just went a bit overboard ordering seeds from Swallowtail Gardens, and I have a stash of others I've been saving to try too. This list is really long!

Oh I love swallowtail gardens! I was just looking there last night

Silly me! I saw that there was free shipping on orders over $40, and my order was only $18 at that point. Decided to look around some more. Well, let me just say that I had more than enough for free shipping when I was done. I was so impressed with the seed packaging when they arrived! I still don't know how much of it I can wintersow, but I've got lots of seeds to try it out on!

I had over $50 in my cart this weekend!

Jennifer, I wish I had stopped there!

Not really though, because I'm so thrilled with what I got. I just spent WAY more than I thought I would, but it was fun shopping, and if only 1/4 of it grows, it will look amazing here next year!

Here is what I ordered, and I'm sure that I can wintersow a lot of these!

AGASTACHE, APACHE SUNSET
AGASTACHE, ARCADO PINK
AMARANTHUS, AUTUMN'S TOUCH
AMARANTHUS, GREEN TAILS
AMARANTHUS, HOT BISCUITS
AMARANTHUS, LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING
AMARANTHUS, MOLTEN FIRE
AMARANTHUS, OPOPEO ORGANIC
AMARANTHUS, PERFECTA
AMARANTHUS, TOWER GREEN
AMARANTHUS, TOWER RED
BABY'S BREATH, PINK CREEPING
BACHELOR'S BUTTON, BLACK BALL
BACHELOR'S BUTTON, CLASSIC ARTISTIC
BACHELOR'S BUTTON, RED BALL
BACHELOR'S BUTTON, WHITE BALL
BRACHYCOME, BLUE SPLENDOR
BUTTERFLY BUSH, MISS BUTTERFLY
CAMPANULA, BLUE CHIMNEY BELLFLOWER
CLARKIA, DOUBLE MIXED
CLEOME, QUEEN MIX
COLUMBINE, BLACK BARLOW
COLUMBINE, BLUE BARLOW
CORAL BELLS, FIREFLY
DAME'S ROCKET MIX
ECHINACEA, DOUBLE DECKERSCARLET FLAX
FOXGLOVE, YELLOW SPEAR
GAILLARDIA, AMBER WHEELS
GAILLARDIA, SINGLE MIX
GAILLARDIA, TOKAJER
GOLDENROD, GOLDEN BABY
HOLLYHOCK, CHAMOIS
HYSSOP
JOE-PYE WEED
JUPITER'S BEARD, SNOW CLOUD
LOBELIA, CARDINAL FLOWER
LOVE-IN-A-MIST, BLUE STARS
MOTHERWORT, SIBERIAN
NEPETA, BLUE PANTHER
NEPETA, GREEK CATMINT
PENSTEMON, MYSTICA
PENSTEMON, RONDO
PENSTEMON, SUNBURST COLOURS
PHLOMIS, JERUSALEM SAGE
POPPY, BLACK SWAN POMPOM
POPPY, CARMINE KING
POPPY, DOUBLE MIXED SHIRLEY
POPPY, HENS AND CHICKS BREADSEED
POPPY, LILAC POMPOM
POPPY, MISSION BELLS CALIFORNIA
POPPY, PURPLE GLEAM CALIFORNIA
POPPY, RED CHIEF CALIFORNIA
POPPY, SHIRLEY SINGLE MIXED
POPPY, SINGLE MIX CALIFORNIA
POPPY, ALPINE MIX
POPPY, HAREMSTRAUM MIX ORIENTAL
SALVIA, FOREST FIRE
SALVIA, BLUE CLOUD
SWEET PEA, KING'S HIGH SCENT
MOTHER-OF-THYME
VERBASCUM, BANANA CUSTARD
VERBENA, PURPLE TOP
VERONICA, BLUE BOUQUET
VERONICA, PINK GOBLIN
XERANTHEMUM, DOUBLE MIXTURE
ZEBRA HOLLYHOCK, ZEBRINA

Nice list

It's funny - when I look at the pile of seed packets, the pile looks twice as big as the list!