I am also in zone 5 and I can tell you that slugs just LOVE hostas any and all sizes. One way to detur them is to surround the poor little seedling with crushed egg shells so if you plan on trying to start hostas again start saving your egg shels. Rinse out the shells and then put them in a safe place like a clean used coffee can with lid. The egg shells are like razors to the slugs.

And as for the petunias I have been hot or miss with them. Most of the misses are from no good seed for one reason or another like it not being fertile enough like from a hybrid plant that just does not make good seed. Though the other year it was because they just had too much water so I had to restart them. And they had the cold once they have germinate at least mine do.

Datura well those things have a mind of it's own. Surprisingly I had some late bloomers come up from where a plant was 2 years ago but not last year (if that makes sense).

And salvia is hit or miss for me no matter where I get seed from still a mystery to me.

Paula

I'm surprised Salvia did not work. I WS'ed my own seeds - red salvia, and store-bought - blue and white, and traded - Yvonne's salvia.
They all had excellent germination.
They were actually my best germinators.

Do you have any idea why yours did not?

I have tried for three years, unsuccessfully, to grow Joe Pye weed. I'm giving up on it.

Barbara in Virginia

Mary, I meant to add to my previous post that if you want to try again with Gaillardia burgundy, datura (white and double purple), petunia (mix), and salvia (tall red but not Yvonne's), I have seeds to spare. Email me if interested.

Barbara in Virginia

Lobelia cardinalis. It's a native plant here. But it never germinates. I tried last winter and spring. Nada. Going to give it one more shot. Joe Pye Weed is another that fails to germinate for me. I blame the seeds rather than the method. However, three purchased plants also died rather quickly after being planted out.

Token,
Maybe I could germinate them for you, you grow them on, and then send them back. :O) For three years I've managed to germinate this one but the slugs take them from me. Catch 22. Do try them again as I'm sure you will suceed.

KMOTGG has been a pain for some of us. First year I winter sowed, they grew well and since it's not a known plant in these parts I received many comments on it. Yet since then it has not grown or germinated in the gardens. Last year I said it would be the last attempt but in trading with some folks from this forum, I've since received more seeds as a surprise. :O) So here we go again!

I am happy to know I am not the only one that had trouble with Joe Pye, being a newbie I thought it was me. I also had zero luck with Passion flower. I thought the Jasmine was going to be a bust but very very late in the Spring it finally germinated. I will try them again and see what happens.

OMG, what is it about Joe Pye??
I have WS'd it 4 times, and still nada.
What the heck am I doing wrong? I sowed it in February, on top of the soil because it is so small. I used MG potting soil. It stayed moist.
Anyone have a clue or suggestion?

Mary

Pulsatilla needs to be sown fresh, (in Spring/summer) so commercial seed probably won't work. I got lots of sprouts from freshly gathered seeds--then slugs showed up in the jug :( They got my lobelia cardinalis too.

"Sluggo" is Iron Phosphate and is safe around pets. I bought some this year.

I won't try Astilbe anymore. I did get a sprout from a dumped jug, but I've taken my many packets of traded seed and just scattered them over the garden. I did maybe 8 jugs over 2 years with no sprouts.

Strangely, I take comfort in all of your trying results. At least it's not just me. The only difference I've seen is Lobelia cardinalis, amazing germination, made the mistake of planting out in a xeriscaped bed, poor babies dehydrated.
Paulan- sounds like you've lived my gardening experience and then some, only diff. I don't think slugs ate my hostas, something bigger with paws kicked up all the surrounding dirt, about a week later my DH told me we had baby bunnies. But I will be on the look out for slugs this season, thanks for the tip, I caught a few creeping up the sides of my jugs this last spring.

daisy, you actually got jasmine in zone 5, you have my envy I haven't known it since I was a little girl (not much taller now)

ellenr-don't know what went wrong with salvia it was store bought 'bonfire' ws'd 3/1 just a no go I guess.

stage_rat I'm sorry to hear about your results, those are 2 high on my wish list, I hope someone knows the solution to our problems.

Joe pye weed-I've received 2 varieties of these in trade, now I'm not sure whether to WS or not?

daisy, you actually got jasmine in zone 5, you have my envy I haven't known it since I was a little girl (not much taller now)

Shinyalloy, yes I received some Night Blooming Jasmine in a "Newbie Packet". It took FOREVER to germinate. I now am overwintering 5 or 6 plants in my sunroom. :) I will bring it back outside in Spring, I can't wait for blooms.

Well, I'm an eternal optimist - or an idiot, lol! I always try things again... and again.... and again....

Just look at my attempts to WS Kiss-Me-Over-the-Garden-Gate. It will be my seventh or eighth year trying (I've lost count, it's been so many times!) I'd think I was setting some kind of record, only I know I'm not the only one. I think PVick and I are tied for number of times trying this darn plant!

If at first you don't succeed...
:)
Dee

delphinium exaltatum and viola corsica... Neither germinated. It could have been the experimental containers I was using.

I was particularly disappointed in the delphinium exaltatum because it is supposed to be native to the area.

But, like diggerdee, I am not going to let the first attempt discourage me; I am hoping to try again this year.

Lois in PA

My failures to try again: Aruncus dioicus, Uvularia grandiflora, Dictamnus albus and Cimifuga. I am thinking I was just too impatient both times I tried so this year I WILL NOT dump the containers until the following year. Does anyone have suggestions? Maybe GA-3?

Rhonda

My ones I plan to try for the 3rd time this year after several failures are: sweet autumn clematis, goats beard, hellebores, and astillbe. My clematis actually did finally germinate this year...in late August, and then it never grew taller than an inch. I planted it out anyways, but I doubt it will make it through the winter.

I have collected seed from my Joe Pye Weed and tried starting some last year. I think it has a very low germination rate. I did two jugs, one of each kind I have. I covered almost the whole surface of the soil in the milk jug with seed, and only got one or two sprouts per jug. They did make it and grew to about two feet tall and had small flowers the first year. So it is possible to do it.

My cardinal flower I also started from seed with good germination and it flowered the first year and came back with some volunteer seedlings as well. It is in a very wet part sun location and seems to thrive there.

Many things that should be easy never germinated for me last year. I think some of the seeds I got from a few large swaps were not good. It seems like many people don't date their seeds. Some packs could have been bouncing around in swaps for 10 years.

Here is a blog I found which gives hints on germinating joe pye weed. Hope this helps some of you wsers.

Here is a link that might be useful: germinating joe pye weed-hints

shinyalloy and molanic - we were just talking about hellebores in a different thread a few days ago - they need an extended warm moist period before the chill to germinate. If you sow and place in cold first, be prepared to hang onto your pots for 15-18 months or until they have had warm moist, cold moist, cool moist, and in that order. Ideal time for sowing hellebore is fresh in July/Aug...but if you can't do that, give the seeds 6-8 weeks (minimum) warm moist as the first step, then place them outdoors.

rbrady, uvularia is generally thought to be intolerant of dry storage. Sow fresh, or buy seeds from someplace that will moist pack them - Gardens North for example will ship moist packed seeds.

I've had no luck with Joe Pye seeds. However I have a native site, near the overflow pond, beyond our half-acre pond. I muck my way through a few times during their bloom time There are several hundred plants but they grow in standing water. Up to last summer I'd had no luck in transplanting plants and had about decided that the treatment would be to cut out the understory in a wooded area that keeps us from seeing them so we could look at them from afar. Last summer a wet spot appeared in our pasture and I transplanted a couple plants there. Turns out the wet spot was temporary--a city water leak in the
subdivision adjoining our well-based farm. I'm waiting to see if the Joe Pye survives. Cat tails, creeping Jenny and
a new (to me) type of milkweed appeared in the temporary
wet area very quickly.

Chris

Well you've all convinced me, I'm going to try again. Worse than that I'll be adding many of your problem children to my wish list.
The only things I can think to do different is not using the bark and twig mulch that MG passed off as potting soil (drainage was too much even during the rainy season) Maybe I could wait 'til later than January on the petunias.

Joe Pye was unsuccesful for several years for me with traded seed and some of my own harvested seed. Then I took the time to research Joe Pye seed and found out that most of the seed on what looks like ready to pick fluffy heads is usually not viable. The little stick end needs to be dark and firm, most seed is light in color and isn't viable. It takes forever to pick out the small amount of dark seeds when cleaning my Joe Pye seeds, but I do get good germination now.

What I haven't had any luck with in 5 years of wintersowing is Monkshod and Turtlehead, I've yet to get a single plant. I have tried traded seed and commercial seed and still nothing. I'm determined to get these plants started from seed so will be doing several jugs of each again this year! Keeping fingers crossed.

Petunias - I get good results in my zone 4 when I start them in early April here.

Cardinal Flowers - I tried for several years before getting any germination. Two years ago had some germination. However last winter, I did three jugs and OMG I think every seed germinated and survived. I planted out some nice size patches at home, cabin, neighbors cabin, both sisters, now hoping they survive over winter.

Sandy

2 years ago (unbeknownst to me), I mixed up the Lobelia cardinalis and Polemonium raptans seeds - I ended up with zillions of Cardinal flowers seedlings I thought were Jacob's ladder (until they shot up in growth and bloomed this summer, hehe). Last winter I tried to WS it again - little sprouts but they croaked for some reason? Meanwhile it reseeds all over out in the hummingbird garden, including the garden paths. I've decided this plant does great as long as you aren't actually trying to grow it!

Last year I had great germination with the Centranthus ruber, but then they drowned with all the rain because I forgot to put drainage holes in the 2 ltr! Will sow again this year.

Although my Digitalis purpurea sprouts abundantly every year, I have been unable to get any other species of Foxglove to sprout. (???)

And there are plenty of others. Perhaps some failures can be attributed to seeds that are not viable...but I wonder.

"...I've decided this plant does great as long as you aren't actually trying to grow it!..."

LOL! I think that's the case with lots of things!

:)
Dee

ontnative- GREAT blog ref. Thanks!
I didn't get any germination with any of the 3 JPs that I tried this year, but I'm determined to try again, since I did have success the first year I was WSing with Chocolate JP.
I didn't have luck with petunias the first year, but keep finding 'pretty pictures' every year, so they always get sown, and this year I got several containers and planted out early (I think that was the reason for their demise in earlier attempts; I left them in the containers too long waiting for them to get "big enough" to plant out. Mistake!)
Can't say that there are many others that I've had no success with- that I cared about to try again, I mean. Datura went off the list as fast as it went on the list- just doesn't interest me that much- too "tropical looking" for my gardens, although it IS gorgeous.

I've noticed a few people mention passion flower. I got some in a trade last year year and the lady that sent them to me said to let the seeds soak overnight in orange juice. I did that and they all sprouted up fine.

Some that didnt work that I will try again are

lupine
columbine
so gonna spell this wrong but don't feel like digging out the seed packet but Deliphums?
moon flower
red hot poker
clematis
snapdragon
morning glory....really? Who can't grow that?

Sunny-I did try the orange juice, but probably only 6-8 hours, just found out tonight I shouldn't have scarified them like I did with my other fat seeds. But I think the biggest reason I (and possibly daisy) failed was that the heartiest of passion flowers, passiflora incarnata, is only hardy to zone 6b and we are both in zone 5, but I did have hopes of growing it as an annual or maybe even luck out and get it to survive a winter in a sheltered location. I have seed to try again, better luck with that than a zone 8 jasmine.
I will be trying delphiniums and hopefully red hot pokers this winter, maybe someone will be kind enough to clue us in.

Sandy-I'm expecting monkshood seeds shortly, I'll keep fingers crossed for the both of us as these are new to me.

Sunny-I did try the orange juice, but probably only 6-8 hours, just found out tonight I shouldn't have scarified them like I did with my other fat seeds. But I think the biggest reason I (and possibly daisy) failed was that the heartiest of passion flowers, passiflora incarnata, is only hardy to zone 6b and we are both in zone 5, but I did have hopes of growing it as an annual or maybe even luck out and get it to survive a winter in a sheltered location. I have seed to try again, better luck with that than a zone 8 jasmine.

I did not soak the passion flower in OJ. Maybe that will be my leap of faith if I can find seed.

Several of the seeds others are having difficulty with need a period of cold stratification. I refer to the old Thompson & Morgan Germination Database for cold stratification requirements.

I have had good results ws delphiniums in March with germination about a month or 6 wks later. They need 2 wk cold stratification. One variety last spring had only a small amount of germination so I planted them out and left the container hoping for more germination. During fall clean up I found the container had several new sprouts. This odd fall with a cold October (3 snows here) and a warm November probably fooled them into thinking they had a winter and spring. Too late to plant out so I put the whole container in the ground and hope some survive the winter.

Anemone, helleborus, and some clematis and other seeds need W C W, warm cold warm, or two winters of ws to germinate. Others like clematis stans will germinate well with only one winter.

Actaea racemosa (cimicifuga) is one that I have had good germination with when keeping the containers over two winters.

Some of the larger seeds will rot if the mix is kept too wet. Those, lupine, morning glory, datura, sunflowers, often germinate well when direct sown here. Other times they just take their own sweet time, last spring I thought one container of morning glory seeds had rotted so later sowed tomato seed in the container. After a few weeks I had tomatoes and morning glories growing together. LOL

Astilbe has also been difficult for me. Only had a few germinate with my own fresh seed.

Here is a link that might be useful: T & M Germination Database