Which annuals are you trying this year?
My new ones are Salpiglossis, and I want to try Calceolaria.

"New" for me this year will be lots of (old) seeds I received in trades that I never planted! Believe it or not I still have seeds in my seed 'fridge' from as far back as 2001

I also have some Bacopia (sp?) started, am anxious to see how that does from seed.

I've sown Slipper Flower (Calceolaria mexicana), but I haven't started my salpiglossis seeds yet. I think I need to try to time those just right since I have no light setup.

I've also sown several impatiens species, a few lavatera, Pink Flowered Tweedia (Oxypetalum solanoides), Cleome lutea, Petunia (Petunia grandiflora 'Avalanche Blue Star'), Chinese Foxglove (Rehmannia elata), Mignonette (Reseda odorata), Yellow Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium striatum), Texas Tarragon (Tagetes lucida), Chinese Cucumber (Trichosanthes kirilowii) and of course lots of different Snapdragons and Pansies.

I also have a great many yet to sow...

...and there's still a month left to wait before I'll start sowing peppers and tomatoes!

Wow ! that is alot of new items!

Is the yellow cleome the herbaceous one or the shrub one?

As far as I know, it's considered an annual herb. http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bi...

From what I can gather, it hates humidity though, so it'll likely be fussy here. Fun experiment tho'...

Well, I think you will love the Slipper Flower Calceolaria mexicana! I planted it for the 1st time last year, it makes a great filler in pots. Trim off the spent blooms when it goes through it's first flush of bloom and it will rebloom for you. Produced a ton of seeds for me too.

Those are good to know! Thanks!

Seedsower said:Well, I think you will love the Slipper Flower Calceolaria mexicana! I planted it for the 1st time last year, it makes a great filler in pots. Trim off the spent blooms when it goes through it's first flush of bloom and it will rebloom for you. Produced a ton of seeds for me too.

I've grown it out twice now, and I'd say that it's one I'll save seed from every year...love it!

Chelle, I grew the Chinese Foxgloves one year from seed and really enjoyed them. Sounds like you are growing lots of interesting ones.

Thanks to pirl for mentioning Mischel's greenhouse. I placed a fairly large order with them. Ordered 3 of the planter trios, Embers, Purple Pagent and Rhapsody. Sunset Cruz Begonia, Beauty of Lions and Wall Street coleus are all new annuals to me that are included in the planter packs. Also some Lantana Banana Cherry, Alternanthera Red Hots and a ruby alternanthera. Even with shipping, I think the price of everything will be a little less or about the same as if I'd bought them here. I saved a lot of coleus cuttings over the winter and also some Watermelon Blue cannas. Think that will about take care of my pots for the year.

Going to plant some Candy Cane zinnias.

The Salpiglossis sinuata is coming along nicely.
The Calceolaria is just sprouting.

Salpiglossis germinates very readily! I'm surprised. I thought it might be a difficult seed for me, but 95% germinated together...in just three days time.

I also have two new amaranths going...they're red from the very beginning, so they're kind of neat even at sprout stage.

Here's a list of my newbies:

Caterpillar Bean - Scorpirius muricatus
Chihuahua Flower - Tacitus bellus
Garlic Vine - Mansoa alliacea
Gazania - Kiss Mahogany - Gazania rigens
Gazania - Kiss Rose - Gazania rigens
Gazania - White Flame - Gazania rigens
Ginger, wild - Asarum caudatum
Goat's Rue - Tephrosia virginiana
Hibiscus - Pavonia Orange Mallow - Pavonia missionum
Hibiscus - Pavonia Pink Mallow - Pavonia lasiopetala
Milkweed - Scarlett - Asclepias curassavica
Mimulus - Calico Monkey Flower - Mimulus pictus
Petunia - Carpet Buttercream - Petunia x hybrida
Rabbit Ears Vine - Ruttya fruticosa
Voodoo Flame Ginger - Burbidgea schizocheila

The main greenhouse is stuffed with 'babies'. The bolded ones are already up and the others I'm still waiting on to come up.

Cool!

I've sown Gazania 'Kiss Frosty White Flame', but no sign of it yet. I've never grown a gazania from seed, and I have no special setup for them, so that's an "iffy", at best. I found a plant last year on an end of season sale rack and it was a beauty, so I'd love to see it again.

This is my second year with Gazanias .. I grew the Sunshine Mix last year and loved them .. if you have a lot of squirrels you'll want to wait until they are well on their way with a good root system and true leaves before you put them in the ground and have some spares in pots to replace the ones the squirrels dig up.

Gazania is another that I am trying for the first time, and they germinated quickly under lights.
Sunshine mix is one package, and the other was called Stars and Stripes.
Both of these are mixed colors. Another year I would like to order the separate colors.

I just checked my records and this years Gazanias started coming up 3 days after sowing.

Hmmm...mine might be in trouble then. Are both of you using heat mats and light? I may need to start over.

No heating mats or lights this year .. kept them out in the greenhouse this time .. I normally start seeds in late January on heating mats but not this year because of all the Polar Vortex's that kept coming. You don't want to plant them very deep either.

I just came in from the greenhouse to check on the babies .. it's been raining since yesterday - up to 1.5 inches. Also Gazanias seem to have 3 different types of leaves .. cotyledons, then baby leaves then true leaves.

Okay. That explains it. I had read to start these in the dark @ 60-65 degrees...no wonder! I'll toss some more seeds in and see what happens.

very much!

Actually I just remembered that I covered the trays with the gazania with aluminum foil. I took it off when over half had germinated and the rest came up a few days later.