OK...So my question is...is it too late to start seedlings for the year? I dont have a greenhouse so this would be direct sow.... I just didnt know if they would have time to get established until winter...I am zone 6b here so it gets cold around November...or should i just direct sow later? I get too excited and start at wrong times so I thought I would ask before I started them

If your weather conditions are ok, they would have time to establish. As long as you have a way to take care of your seedlings keeping them going as they sprout. We are zone 7, it would be to hot to start them outdoors here in July.
But I would be fine with planting this years seedlings and think they would overwinter just fine.

Not too late in TN. Keep them watered after they germinate. We just came in from gathering seeds for the second or third day. We'll air dry them for a few days, refrigerate for a couple of weeks, then plant them directly in the ground. Planting soon will get you a huge head start on next year. If you get lucky, you'll get a few that will bloom next year, but most will take until 2015. Lot of work, but fun, isn't it?
David
NW GA

I'm almost done planting all my seeds and will be finished by Aug 1st. I don't direct sow in the ground, but I do plant them in the 72 cell trays that are outdoors. I just plant them straight out of the pods, I skip the drying and refrigeration since it just adds time to rehydrate and germinate. In about 6 weeks (no later than Sept 15) they will be planted in the seedling beds.

This is a photo from last year of how I have my seed trays outdoors. I didn't do the sand on top (for fungus gnats) this year since the gnats don't seem as abundant. The tin on top is to keep the seeds from washing out of the trays (like they did 2 years ago) when we have all this rain. We have had 3 weeks of pretty much non-stop rain

Thanks everybody for the info!! I thought it might be ok...its been especially cool and wet this year in TN...weve only had i think two days that even hit 90! So I really think the seedlings would be ok...which im a really small scale operation right now...just my backyard...but ive got some nice sprinklers i can set up ( when it doesnt rain...which right now is EVERY day...lol...Tink that is a REALLY cool set up you have there...I may just try some like that too....

I agree, that is a really cool set up Michelle. Do you ever have problems with the wind blowing the seedling trays off?

philljm said:I agree, that is a really cool set up Michelle. Do you ever have problems with the wind blowing the seedling trays off?

No, I don't have a problem with the wind blowing the trays off. Once all the trays are on there they are pretty snug together plus I keep them watered so they are never light enough for the wind to really pick them up. Even when we have rain storms the winds aren't usually bad. Our high winds are in the winter months and they can get up to 30-40 mph at times.

Michele,
Thanks for all of your practical experience. I think, Tink, that I will skip the refrigeration phase, as we can get them growing 2-3 weeks earlier. Maybe they don't need "winter" cooling, there are more than one way of skinning a daylily, I think it's been said. The sooner, the better!
David

Well from everything I've read, putting them in the fridge without a moist environment (soil, sand, vermiculite, coffee filter, etc) is really just cold storage. It does not act as cold stratification unless their is a moisture along with the cold.
Some do take longer to germinate and these may be the ones that would benefit from cold stratification, but you really have no way of knowing which seeds will need it unless you do them all.

I haven't done any seeds since we moved up here yet but when we lived in zone 10 south Fl. I always just planted the seeds straight out of the pods like Michele. Well, I didn't have her tray set up but I mean I just went from pod to little pots that I started them in. I had great success with that. About 90% germination rate. Then I would generally have scapes blooming in 7 months. I expect it will take a bit longer up here.