Exciting, isn't it?!

I wouldn't take the covers off completely quite yet - it's not impossible that we could see some drops in temps, or even a late freeze. You might want to put some extra vent holes in the plastic, and maybe put the containers in a spot where they're not in direct sun. Even if you remove the tops, keep them handy, just in case.

Don't have any particular hollyhock experience, but I do pot up seedlings sometimes - usually when they have at least two sets of true leaves.

Congrats on your sprouts!

PV

It gets a little dicey when some have sprouted but there are many left to sprout.
One wonders - cover or not cover?

I suggest worry more about frying the sprouts than protecting the unsprouted seeds.

Gradually open the sprouts to the air. Since generally temps are rising your unsprouted seeds are warm in the earth, and I do not think will suffer.

Thanks PV and ellenr - I think I will peel back the cover in the morning and lay it back over at night. I will move them to the east side of my house where there's shade from my neighbors house and a maple tree in the morning (then shade from my house the rest of the day). I too am more worried about frying the sprouts than I am about more germinating.

Congrats!!!
-B

Me too! My first time wintersowing and I have some yarrow sprouts! So excited.

yarrow just started popping up in my garden! :)

Picture of my first sprouts :)

{{gwi:368882}}

Hi Andrea! As soon as I saw your sprouted hollyhock, I said, That looks familiar! Hmmm... I went to FB Wintersowers, and connected craftlady and Andrea M of FB... hahaha! Nice to 'know' you... am also a member of FB Wintersower, btw.

As to your question on taking off the cover or not, I'd suggest take off a little, enough for it to 'breath' more. I forgot to do that to my cosmos, and fried almost 90% of them... I should have known better as this is my 6th yr of ws.So what I do now is whenever I see sprouts pop up, I open it up and move it in my greenhouse...

holly hocks are tough! they stay green in my garden all winter (zone 6)-

they have a tap root- for me, this makes it much harder to transplant- I would just let them grow on for a bit and then plant right in the garden spot where you want them-no need to re-pot-(if you break that little root, the plant won't make it)

I use plastic wrap on top of my containers too...after I have a few sprouts, I just start enlaring the holes in the wrap until finally they are all uncovered -then plant out-
just watch the moisture when you first plant out

good luck - holly hocks are SO pretty!

Linda

Linda - Thank you so much, that is very helpful information! I have 4 sprouts with seed leaves so far in each of the 3 containers and more are coming up, they just have to shake off those seed heads yet. I'm really excited to have some hollyhocks in my gardens this year!