LOL when I get my goats down here and settled in maybe she can bring him to see them. Once people meet them and get past Hollywood's image of goats they tend to like them. I may even be able to sell her a couple of young ones next year.

Being new in Columbia I'm afraid I don't know what or where the 'Santa Fe' side is!

MollyD

Santa Fe is west on New Highway 7 (or at least that's where DD lives). She's a transplant from up here and married a TN guy.

okay I've seen rt 7. I'm still feeling my way around here. Sometimes I am so lost and then I'll see a name that's familiar and guess which way to turn.

Anyone catch the weather tonight? My forecast is for 70 by Monday after 40's the rest of the week.

I bought some seeds today. Can any of these be wintersown? :

Green Peppers
Spinach Mustard (no idea why I bought this!)
leaf lettuce
red Salvia
Morning Glory
Petunias
Oriental Poppy

Walmart had these at 20cents a package so I grabbed a few.

MollyD

The salvia and the poppies can be WS. Someone else will have to comment on the others. Karen will be along soon, she'll know.
You bought the spinach mustard because it was only 20¢. We'll buy anything for 20¢.

well I thought it was Spinach not spinach mustard. I don't think I've ever even heard of it before.

Can I do the salvia and poppies now? I was cleaning my land and found some empty milk jugs I can use.

MollyD

I agree with Barbara, the poppies and salvia wintersow well for sure, as do petunias. I've never done lettuce but others do, it's a cool-season crop that should do well.

Morning glories- the only ipomoea I've done was alba (moonflower vine). I did as well as most in the north. That is, it bloomed too late for me (like September) but I imagine it would be good in your zone. For earlier bloom, they'd have to be started early inside under lights.

Peppers are another warm germinator. It's not one I'd do up here in Ohio. For your zone, I don't know.

Spinach mustard?? What the heck is that??? It sound like something you southerners would eat, but this Yankee never even heard of it.

Karen

Molly, is the salvia a frost sensitive one like the annual salvia splendens? I wait until spring is about to pop, for me that's late March or April. For you, it might be a couple of weeks earlier.

The problem with sowing now anything that's frost tender like salvia splendens, zinnias, marigolds is that if you get a couple of very warm days early (like that 70° you're getting Monday) they sprout and the cold returns, the seedlings can be killed off in the frost. If you wait until the weather is showing an actual warming trend, with warm days and nights above freezing, that's the best time to sow your frost-sensitive seeds.

We always get a couple of those late overnight frosts. Then I group all those jugs of just the tender plants together and cover with a blanket overnight for extra protection. Remove the blanket in the morning. It's actually easier for me to just wait a few weeks and sow them later.

Karen

Throw those poppies out anytime. I've WS poppies at 40 below zero and they grew.

So maybe the poppies would do as well just sown on the new beds? I know that they tend to get upset at being transplanted.

The Salvia is a hybrid named Bonfire that's all it says on the package. For 20 cents I guess that's all you can hope for.

Karen I'm a transplanted Yank so spinach mustard is a new one on me! The variety is Tendergreen, descriptions says " a quick growing variety especially suited to the south. The leaves have a distinctive flavor, a combination of spinach and mustard. Plants are heat and drought tolerant". It'll be interesting to try. I wonder if my goats would eat it if I don't like it? I'll have to ask goat farmers I know about this.

MollyD

Molly, lots of people do direct sow poppies. If you sow them in a container the trick to transplanting is to do it while they're very small, like a couple of sets of true leaves. The taproot hasn't really formed well at that point. And they're not bothered at all by the cold.

Salvia bonfire is a cultivar of splendens so would be frost tender
http://www.parkseed.com/garden...

You know, we should move this discussion to the wintersowing forum...

Karen

Thanks Karen. I'll just hold the poppies back a bit since spring here is right around the corner.

MollyD

Why are you waiting for the poppies? They can be sown now.

Karen

I meant that I would just sow them outside on the ground in a week or two. My beds aren't ready yet.

MollyD

OK,now that makes sense.

Karen

I seldom do!

MollyD

hmmm I just posted in another thread asking how long but I can see from the dates in this thread that I'm hallucinating and it hasn't been more than a few days since I ws them! Oh boy! I'm loosing it folks!!

MollyD

Molly, you should be able to direct sow the lettuce and spinach mustard in the ground. I have already WS'd salvias this year and last year I WS'd poppies and they're doing great so far. Didn't bloom last year, but they've made it through the winter and are still nice and green and plump, so I'm waiting for huge blooms this year. As Karen has already said, you can direct sow those poppies, too. The pepper plants I'd wait a while on.

Thanks Angie!

MollyD

well I'm starting to see some seeds sprouting. The most activity is from the spinach mustard seeds. One of the daylily crosses is just begining to sprout. We'll see how they do.

MollyD

Congratulations, Molly!

You sound sort of.... calm. When I got my first ever wintersown sprouts I was shouting to the world.

Karen