Looking like I maybe in the same boat with deer at our new place Karen

It's so disheartening, isn't it? You work so hard, then wake up one morning and it's all gone!

Karen

Thanks for that tip, Caroline. I will definitely try some in containers this year. I do love delphs.

Hi All!

Am I too late to winter sow delphiniums? I just received some new millennium from Dowdeswell. My first time to grow delph's and I really want to have success. Thanks for your advice!

I don't think it is too late

Thanks, Jennifer! I didn't either. I just popped some into a milk jug and put them out in the rain. They sent an extra gift pkg of them, so I put them in the fridge as back up and will figure out how/when I will start those. Hopefully mine will look like Duane's in no time : )

Ann, very envious about Dowdeswell delphiniums. I've wanted to try them for some time now. Save me some seeds?

Hi Duane, I don't think the collected seeds will come true, which I think is why Dowdeswells hand pollinate. I could be wrong, but that's my understanding. Please check your treemail.

My Wintersowing is being done in styrofoam cups set in clear plastic storage bins. Some of the bins have seeds of only one type of plant, some of the bins have mixed plants, each lableled with 'stick in the soil' labels (from min-blinds). There are a lot of these bins set over in my fenced (deer problem) veggie containers area.

We get high winds here...do you see where I'm going with this?.....LOL...

I thought I had all of my bins firmly weighed down, but yep, one got tossed helter-skelter....upside down, cups emptied of soil, labels indiscriminately scattered...this should be interesting.......

Now I will have to pot each resulting seedling and keep it in a pot untill I can determine what in the heck it is......

Oh Sherry, I can't tell you how many times that has happened to me. Last year I had a whole metroshelf of wintersowing tip over! What a disaster that was.

Sherry,
If you find what was tipped over and they were seeds I sent you. I probably could send you more. LMK

Oh, Jennifer...I'm so glad that I'm not alone....LOL...

Duane, thank you.....I've not sown all of the seeds from you. Since I'm sowing early, I've only been sowing parts of each type of seeds I have in case they don't like the cold and wet. I have lots more seeds to sow and will be continuing.

There are about 15 styrofoam cups in each bin and each of those cups had at least 4 seeds....so now, if they all germinate, I will be needing to pot each of the resulting seedlings into pots to let them grow on to see what they are.....sigh.....

We get very high winds here on the coast. A friend 45 miles up the coast got a new neighbor...new neighbor got a greenhouse......Rebecca took a quick look at it and said that won't last.....the next high winds we got, greenhouse was blown away, not one piece to ever be found again....LOL...

Count me in the "been there, done, that" crowd. I had pictures but can't find them now. Anyway, now I put 2 bricks in each bin. (Once a bin with one brick got blown away, so now it's 2 bricks)

Karen

Karen, good idea! I have no bicks...LOL...

Bricks are one of those things you don't bring with you when you move 900 miles and it takes 5 full U-Haul big trucks to make that move....

I have stuff sitting on the tops of my bins...which also helps to keep the neighboring cats off of them....

Sherry,

Got any empty milk jugs, water or pop bottles? Filled with water, they make great weights

Karen

I found a few pics. These were from my 2010 wintersowing

And remember, milk jugs half filled with wet soil are, of themselves, heavy


This was tomatoes, and had one brick in it


Never doubt what you hear about midwest winds in spring. "Tornado alley" earned it's name.

Karen

Well, that last pic looks quite like mine......LOL...

Very few milk jugs and I've grabbed those for sowing and they sit out in the open between bins to anchor them. I have quite a few 2-3 gallon pots of strawberries and I'm setting those on tops of the bins. My bins are on tabletops and would be more wind-proof if set beneath the tables, but we have great numbers of snails and slugs who find it easy to get into things.

When I mentioned my bin of dumped seeds / soil to my husband, he asked why I didn't just dump them......he just doesn't 'get it'. There are 'babies' in there....LOL..

I spent a couple of separate years in Iowa, I do know Tornado Alley.....scariest thunderstorms I'd ever heard also.

So I planted delphinium seeds in my milk jugs on 2/24. I noticed 3 days ago a little speck of green which now is definitely a seedling. However, it's the only one in what feels like a sea of soil. Is he just an over-achiever? Or should I be concerned?? I think I may just be impatient, but I do have some more seeds that have been in the fridge since I received them, so I could technically plant those. Thoughts?? Wait or plant another jug?

Thanks!!!

Patience grasshopper

Lots of seeds have irregular germination, especially wintersown ones. I'd give them a while, wait until more warm weather is around.

Karen