Natalie, I'm just touching base here and want to note that my semps are still under about 2' of snow in the same Zone 4a as your father, (although in the Northern Catskills, Upstate NY). I can't tell yet whether my seedlings from last year will have survived the winter, but the 3 or 4 NoID's we've grown in our regular flower beds for several years have never had any problem with our winters... They are somewhat addicting as I found out when I planted my first seeds last spring...
Here are a couple of photos of this year's seedlings which just sprouted this week (along with some of my other plants under light -- we won't be doing any outdoor gardening for awhile yet (it's 28 degrees and snowing; was down to 0 again yesterday morning.) This is about as exciting as my gardening gets t his time of year!
