Hi, one winter sower reported in from Zone 3 around February 8. Seven have reported in so far this year from Zone 4. No one has reported in from Zones 0,1 or 2.

I'm in 3 or 4, depending on who(the locals)you talk to. I haven't been too successful WSing, but I keep trying. My problem has been that our apartment was not near a door, I had to be careful where I put my containers(so they wouldn't be an eyesore), and I usually couldn't keep an eye on them once I found a spot. Either they were drenched by t-storms, raided by squirrels, or fried from a surprise hot day before I could get out to check on them. After 3 years of trying I finally got a couple of painted daisy plants...whew! I planted them in the community raised bed and every one enjoyed them. In December, we moved to a different apartment building(about a block away)due to DH's and my medical problems, but now we have our own entry and a little green strip which will be my container garden. Just yesterday I put out a few WS containers and hope to add a few more. So I haven't given up yet!!! And, I can go visit my Painted Daisies whenever I want(or until I get some growing here).

I have been winter sowing for several years very successfully. I am just starting now with my perennials and will be sowing throughout the spring and into the summer for fall planting.

I love wintersowing. The biggest problem is where to plant all the sprouts. My friends and family love to have me share and I also take plants to several swaps.

I know there are other MN wintersowers in this area.

We had a member from zone 1, Alaska for at least a few years. I found an old thread where she links to her photobucket album. (If you click her name "Chocolatemoose" in photobucket you will see more photos of here wintersown garden in Alaska.

Barbara, did you disappear on us again?

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: Alaska wintersown

If something grows in your zone, you can winter sow it, as far as I know. I would imagine for you, one of the hardest things might be not giving up. It gets hard waiting for the sprouts in a zone where things come up late.

I am in zone 5, but my containers are in the shade. My sprouts will be later than just about everyone else's in my zone. The waiting and watching while other people were reporting sprouts, was tough! Just don't give up on anything! Every zone and every seed has it's own schedule!

Once I have seen geranium psylostemon grown successfully in Alaska/ this particular ger. hardy only to zone 6 and I had no luck overwintering one in my garden zone 5/ I started asking my friends botanists how is that possible. I was told that being in Alaska means nothing and their weather could be much more forgiving than my zone 5- volume of snow cover and excellent sunshine allows them to grow things we can not do here... go figure....

Linda, they also have the huge advantage with sunlight!

Thank you for the encouraging replies. I'm still wondering about the effect of winter sowing on whether there is time for the flowers and fruit to mature or not. Specifically, I am concerned about tomatoes. Do ws tomatoes fruit as fast as indoor starts (6-8 weeks) of the same variety? I'm concerned about other plants as well (asylum ); however, I don't buy bedding plants until they go onsale so they may be the same size as usual when they hit the garden.

Also, I had poor results indoor seeding last year, probably due to old seed.

Re: setting fruit and flowers

I start tomatoes inside so that I can set them out early with wall of water.
The ones that have been ws do set fruit but much later in the season. There are so many variables with tomatoe fruit set, date of transplanting to garden, maturity time, weather, WOW, etc. that it is difficult to say how ws ones would do in your garden. Perhaps you could try some both ways using the same variety and treating them the same to see what works best for you.

Flowers: I ws lots of annuals which do bloom later than those one buys as starter plants. Most are blooming by the end of June for me. Zinnias are later. Alyssum self seeds in my gardens so I dig them up and move them where I want them.

These alyssum and verbena were ws in 2007.

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Self sown 2008 This photo is in early July but I know they were blooming in May.
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I sow my toms indoor and start most annuals that I want to bloom early indoor as well in my zone 5. Our summer is too short so most of my WS toms will ripen by September and annuals bloom from midsummer onward. Sometimes I do WS as well to prolong my season of bloom.

Hurray! A Zone 3er :-)
I know I've seen people from zones 0-3 here in the past, but I don't know who or where they are.
I would love to see them peek out and say "hey" and let us know what their experiences have been.

Linda B

I can't speak to tomatoes, but we are on the line between zones 3 & 4, and I WS'd a few containers. The alyssum was tiny little pathetic looking things when I planted it out, and I planted out some nursery grown alyssum at the same time. My WS'd alyssum soon surpassed the nursery grown. It became an enormous, gorgeous sprawling mass anywhere it was planted, while the nursery grown stuff stayed in clumps.

Havnen't posted since last year,busy planting those shasta's,browneyed susans,yarrow,calendula,poppies,coneflowers and making a few new lasagna beds to put them in!I can vouch for these as successes and though my coneflowers didn't bloom I got alot of growth for the 1st year of ws. so far have about 120 jugs ws. Even the shasta daisies were starting to bloom albeit very late in the season,they say they take a 2nd season.They also say poppies don't like transplanting well I didn't have to much trouble with them taking hold.I'm on 10 acres with not much in the way of landscaping so trying to fill in the voids with as much low maintenance perrenials as poss though all that planting out can be a chore. Glad to see some other z 3's out there . Hope to be a little more active online this year, and even put some pics out maybe! happy sowing everyone!