Karen, you are one of the people that encouraged me two years ago to give WSing a try. I can't imagine not doing it now.

I'm glad Lynn!

I encourage so many people to give it a try, just once. Most who try it once are amazed enough to keep wintersowing, whether they need more plants or not.

True story: Several years ago on GardenWeb, people on some forum (don't remember which) were discussing how difficult it is to grow poppies. So being the helpful friendly person that I am, I suggested wintersowing them, gave links to Trudi's site about poppies, and posted pics of my own wintersown poppies from birth in their jugs to bloom in my garden. People became furious with me, accused me of being part of "that wintersowing cult" and "trying to convert them to my cult". Sheesh! I was just trying to be helpful.



Karen

That's funny in a sad sort of way, Karen.

If I have time, I'm going to try to get some jugs put out this weekend. I have the jugs all ready cut and holes drilled, so it should go pretty quickly. The longest part will be deciding what I want to WS! Hopefully, the weather will cooperate as well.....I hope it's not going to stay too warm for the seeds to sprout.

I'll probably doing the bulk of my WS later to start some annuals....always need lots of those.

People are so weird!
I am a terrible winter sower because I am so busy with 500 orchids that need watering daily that the seeds end up being neglected. But my honey loves zinnias so I'm thinking about ws....
Any tips? Besides paying attention and watering them!!!

Their loss Karen.
You never know though, there might be that one person that reads your post and decides to try it. Voila, another convert to your WS cult.

boojum, I always wait until spring, or very close to spring, to "wintersow" tender annuals like zinnias. Same method, only later in the year. They sprout fast in warm weather. The danger in sowing them in winter is they might sprout in an early warm spell and freeze out when the cold returns.

Linda, there are some on the GW forum who have wintersown sprouts already! One was zone 7, another was in Oklahoma. I'm going to try to do a few jugs too. I keep mine in shade in winter so they don't get very much warmth.

Karen

Cult? Wow, that's pretty hysterical ... Gotta love the Internet for turning over a bunch of rocks that were best left unturned. Bizarre.

Well as a complete newbie, I'm dying to become a convert ..... Just might've picked the wrong winter, grrrr.

hey there Kathy!!!

I had intended to start wintersowing, but I opened my library book, and that was the end of my idea. Just taking a break to make a cup of tea.

Maybe tomorrow.

Karen

Thanks for your good advice!

I'm packing away Christmas decorations (yeah,I know...I'm kind of behind).

It's so warm here, I'm really hesistant to start WS perennials Guess there's nothing to lose but a few seeds, right?.

I just finished with all the Christmas decor. Back in the boxs for another year.
I aways sow all my seeds in the greenhouse and I have been reading all your ideas for awhile. Any of you do Rudbeckia? Since space is an issue in the GH I thought those would be good to winter sow.

Hi ,
This is my 5th year to winter sow , I don't start till the first day in February ,mostly because that is when I have the time and jugs collected. I have had very good luck so at least for my zone (5 a ) it is not too late. I sow till the end of February, then start veggies in pots.
As for Christmas decorations my tree is still up and will probably be late next week before I can find time to take it down , It is an all day process and this year I promised to thin out some of the decorations and release them to a new home

Cinda, it's good to know we can still start in early February in our zone.

I hated taking down my tree today. The house always looks so dark and empty after the lights and shimmer are gone. I bought several new decorations and ornaments this year, so now I need to find a space for them when I pack then away. For some reason I was really attracted to mercury glass this year, so bought some ornaments, trees and globes. Since they are fragile glass, they need to be very carefully packed and stored. Sigh........

But, my mom is going to be moving in with us over the next few weeks, so it's time to get the house in order again. I am just sad to see the holidays end.

we took a bunch of our decorations down yesterday as well.. already starting to look sad out there.. going to be a couple of weeks before I can sow mine I think.. will be happy when the house isn't trashed with decorations and we get it all packed away

springcolor: Oh yeah, rudbeckias wintersow very well!






Anything that reseeds in your area is a good candidate for wintersowing.

Karen

Karen
Is that Green Eyes or Prairie Sun and Cherry Brady? Mine always end up flopping over. Yours are gorgeous.

Thanks. Yes, the red one is cherry brandy. The green eyed ones were wintersown from seeds harvested from my yard. I started both Prarie Sun and Irish Eyes years ago, so the resulting seeds produced have produced mutts. They're just seed from open pollinated rudbeckia hirtas.

My ruds sometimes flop over too, usually from heavy storms with heavy rain and strong wind. But lack of sun and/or excess watering can also cause them to flop I think.

Karen

Well, both of those thngs are just part of gardening here in the NW. I'm going to give this a try.

the ruds on my sunny slope are good.. in the back the cherry brandy can flop too.. but less sun there