Amy,

You can definitely do Forget Me Not, Maltese Cross, and Asters.

The Maltese Cross is a perennial - Lynchnis Chalcedonica. Nice plant. The butterflies will love it.

The Forget Me Not can be either an annual (Cynoglossum) or a biennial Myosotis. I grow both in the gardens. The annual will do well in sun while the biennial prefers a bit of dappled or part shade. If you cut back the biennial after flowering, it can also begin to act as a perennial. At least mine do. I use the annual Cynoglossum as a filler in the gardens. It's so pretty!

Maltese Cross is a perennial and depending on what Aster you have they can be annual or perennial.
Sunflower I've had planted in the ground as early as April 17th and night temps down to 24 didn't even faze them. The self-sown ones were coming up about the same time. (See post "Early Spring pics 2007" whre I have pics of itty bitty seedlings in the ground)
Impatiens I already started in December...heavy re-seeders in my area so I figure they can handle an early sowing.
What type of FMN do you have?

LOL How funny..Tiffy and I were posting at the same time:D

Mind your manners. You know you are not suppose to interupt your elders when they are speaking. LOL!! :O)

I just sowed my Globe Amaranth today, so I guess I'll find out how hardy it is! I'm holding off at least 2 or 3 more weeks on Basil, Marigolds, and Zinnias though.

Bonnie

Thanks everyone! To answer questions:

The Forget-me-not is a combination annual/biennial mix (Myosotis sylvatica and Cynoglossum amabile). It's labeled as a spring/summer mix. I bought this for the very shady area next to my back patio since it was labeled full to partial shade.

I didn't know the Maltese cross was a perennial! I'll get that sown right away. It's a variety called Lychnis Lipstick from Sandhill Preservation. The asters are also from Sandhill so I have no idea if they're perennials or not.

Amy

Maltese Cross really winter sows nicely. I'm thinking the forget me nots are fine too. They re-seed like crazy for me. You can do sunflowers now too, but just remember they are very easy germinators and are somewhat tender. So if you want to get them done, do them, but remember to watch over them after they sprout. I'm getting ready to do my basil. It's a smart seed.

The others, perhaps wait 2 weeks. The issue here with 4:00s is that it needs to be warm when they sprout. They can sit in cold wet chilly soil and rot. That being said, I know folks around here who have volunteers that are darn near pests.

Thanks for the tips, Bakemom. I'm just so eager that I can't help myself! I think I can wait two weeks, especially on the sunflowers and the four o'clocks so that I don't have to deal with dragging them into the garage constantly. At least now I can get a couple more jugs sown today!

Amy