Around Groundhog Day, I was deciding that Spring had come months early ... since then we've had more snow and frost than we did all winter.

Grumble. My crocuses came up, and have been snowed on three times since.

I think they are now too wary to open up, but the few I brought indoors immediatly opened wide and told me "that's what I'm TALKIN' about!"

At least i was too busy and lazy to direct sow when I THOUGHT that Spring had been here for over a month.

One jug of WSown allysum sprouted today. I just sowed that 4 days ago. One more tomato sprouted too. No more germination of the perennials.

Cooler air is moving in now. It's getting windy, and supposed to rain for the next 2 or 3 days. Temps are supposed to moderate with highs of 60s-70, lows in the upper 40s-50. I can live with that. Normal hi/low are 55/35.

Karen

No new tomato sprouts today, but no both jugs of allyssum have a few sprouts, and the first celosia showed up, too.

Karen

What type of alyssum are you growing? I like Snow Crystals, have an entire flat of it going!

Mine are Clear Crystal White. I bought a load of these three years ago. This is the 3rd year I have wintersown this same batch.
http://www.panamseed.com/plant...

You can see them (barely, with the grass so tall) at the front of this bed last July


Here they are in November 2, the only thing left blooming


I love 'em.

Karen

Karen: The first picture of your garden bed is so pretty. Not to get off topic but just wanted to compliment you on the lovely
colors you have mixed together

Thank you, Julia!

Karen

Gee, your Clear Crystal White sounds and looks a lot like Snow Crystals! Except it comes in other colors! I like it because it mounds instead of trailing (or more like straggling to me!) and the flowers are bigger than the older types of alyssum.

I agree. Some of the older varieties look messy and need to be cut back. I usually don't have to cut these back. Occasionally, but rarely.

Karen

Do you only have the white ones? I'd love to get some of that variety in purple!

Yes, I only have the white.

I haven't tried the clear crystal in other colors, but in the past I did try some purples of other varieties of alyssum. I couldn't swear to it, but I think they were aphrodite series. I didn't find that the purple showed up very well. It blended in with the mulch.

Since then I've stuck with white alyssums.

Karen

Yes, I could see how that would be. But since mine are in containers, the purple looks very nice with the white around taller pink flowers. I grow some Royal Carpet and Oriental Nights, but they do get a bit straggly. Works out ok in hanging baskets, tho.

Weather is a little cooler now. Cooler air moved in, bringing storms and lots of rain. (2 more possible tornadoes in the area yesterday).

What a difference a day makes! Still no more tomato sprouts, still just three. But more alyssum sprouted, a zinnia or two, a marigold or two, a jug of sunflowers, one celosia, a couple more penstemon smallii...

My yard looks like a swamp. The grass grew about 6". My established plants are bursting to life- the dwarf Japanese maple leafed out, the crepe myrtle...

A little more normal weather can do wonders.

Karen

we are going back into a cold snap.. maybe it's good the tomatoes didn't all sprout

If we get a light overnight frost, I'll re-cover them. If we get a deep freeze, I'll put them in the garage overnight. I've had wintersowing years when my seedlings lived in my garage for days at a time. I've had to park my car outside in the cold, sometimes snow...

Most years, this stuff isn't necessary. Mother Nature tends to handle things well without much intervention from me. This is my 7th year wintersowing, and I guess if you do it long enough, you see it all.

What was I thinking sowing all this stuff? I don't think I have space to plant half of it if it grows A lot of the seeds were pretty old, and in some cases I only had a few seeds, so when all is said and done, I guess it might not be all that much.

Karen

need to go to a swap!!

Plant Swap.

They've issued a frost warning for Cincinnati tonight. If you have any tender seedlings or plants outside, and you live in this part of the world, you might want to check your forecast.

Karen

We have a freeze warning .. But looks to be right below me

We got down to at least 34°, but I don't think there was a frost. At least, none was visible on rooftops, lawns, and cars. I did cover my wintersown stuff last night and put a bin of tomatoes and sunflowers in the garage overnight. I'll move them back to the deck as soon as the temps start to rise.

Karen