I was thinking yesterday, as it was 53° here, that some southerners must be seeing sprouts by now. Anyone?

Mine generally start to germinate in March, and rudbeckia hirta often win the race. March isn't far off now.

Karen

should be close if not

I have just got going on my WS.
I did 12 jugs and 24 orange juice cartons.
Several varieties of Gaillardia, some old cleome seeds? and several alpines.

Nice start Caroline. You've done more than I have.

Karen

Well, although it's still very cold here, I had 7 containers with sprouts 10 days ago:

Sedum oregonense
Alyssum spinosum
Dianthus grationopolitanus
Centaurea moschata
Zauschneria garetti
Dianthus anatolicus
Lupinus NOID

But now it's freezing again during day and night. No higher temps expected until next week, so I'll have to wait and see if they survived the severe frost.

That's great, Jonna.

I never see wintersown sprouts before March.

Karen

a couple of monarda sprouts and one rudbeckia here.

Somehow, wintersown sprouts are always kind of exciting.

Karen

I haven't started ws yet, but plan to within the next few weeks. I have about 12 jugs collected so far

Nothing yet!! You got me excited.

nice.. love to see them wake up!!!

I did three jugs double Canterbury Bells (Campanula medium calycanthema), and three jugs singles Canterbury Bells.
I am trying to use up older seeds, so don't know how well these will do. They are biennials here.

I just happened to glance over at one of my boxes this morning I use for WS and noticed that the Cobra Lily seeds, Chasmanthe floribunda are beginning to sprout! Woo hoo! I've never grown these before so I don't know if they will bloom the first year from seed or need to develop a bulb.

oh yeah!!!

Keep us posted.

Not sure if this is right forum, but is there anyone out there from GA that does Winter Sowing? We just don't seem to have much of a "winter" (I'm originally from MI) so I don't really know how to try here. I threw some potting mix in some rotissiere chicken boxes with holes punched in Jan. and some have already come up but we've had so much rain and really only cold has been nights, daytime in the 50's and 60's. I don't know if it's worth doing here? My daughter is trying it for the first time but she's in Michigan!

Hi Arlene, and welcome!

I can't give any advice as far as your climate, because I've never gardened anywhere but Ohio. But if you've got sprouts, it sounds like you've figured things out pretty well on your own! One suggestion I might offer is that those rotisserie chicken containers tend to be shallow, therefore prone to dry quickly. As weather warms and gets drier, you might want to keep them in afternoon shade and watch moisture closely.

Notice above that Xeramtheum lives in SC. She might have so climate-related tips for you.

Karen

Thanks, Karen. Yeah, the rotisserie boxes are shallow but this year they have barely had a chance to drain before it rains again. LOL! And I tend to pot up my seedlings early, sometimes even before first true leaves so they won't be in there long. Oh,I do have them in afternoon shade. I really was hoping to get it to work because I am so sick of freezing or chilling my seeds or trays of potting soil. I've only ever gotten one delphinium to germinate and I just threw seeds in the ground in the fall for columbine and larkspur because I couldn't get them to germinate inside.

Winter sowing in the Deep South is a challenge because of the periodic warm ups into the 70's then back down into the 30's. You really don't want to use jugs or anything enclosed because of the warm ups. It raises the temperature of the soil too quickly. I use those plastic window boxes with a cover made of hardware cloth to keep the squirrels out of them and keep them in the shade on the ground - by being on the ground it helps keep the soil temperature from rising too quickly and causing premature germination. For some of the seeds that need dark to germinate I just throw a good layer of fallen leaves on the top of the soil .. otherwise I just leave it bare.