This website, A Garden for the House, has quite a helpful list of things that need cold stratification in order to germinate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cold Stratification Perennial plant list

I'm not familiar with the Mexican shell flower, of the others I'd say all of these could be safely sown now, the only one that's even a little iffy would be Columbine but I'll bet they'll be fine.

One thing I noticed about your list is that aside from Lunaria and Columbine, all of these are very late germinators - April and after here in Ohio. You might want to consider adding a couple more early poppers so you don't get discouraged reading about everybody else's containers bursting to life while yours are just sitting there.

Have fun!
Jeanne

Any suggestions on earlier germinators? I'm not really into the cottage gardening flowers, and I'd like some height to them. I'd also like to find a few variegated ones.

Thanks!

Lupine, cupid's dart, dianthus, candytuft, Shasta daisy, salvia, gloriosa daisy & penstemon all sprouted in March/April for me last year. Are any of those on your WS list?

I WS columbine on December 26 and got sprouts April 17 according to my sprout chart. They take a long time to sprout. The blackberry lily I WS on February 22 sprouted on April 19 according to my chart.

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Em, back to the shell flower - tigridia

They may winter sow OK, I haven't tried them, but if you are Z6 you may want to wait a while for those pots. Just temps (and several weeks) of about 60F is all the colder they would need - colder not required.

They are going to form bulbs, and those resulting bulbs won't be hardy to much below a Z8 (like 28-32F)...you are going to have to lift in Fall, or containerize and protect the containers to keep these, they won't be much hardier than dahlia for you - I'd hate to have you germinate the seeds then lose the plants next winter before you have a chance to see them flower :)

I'm finding the sowing hints link above a little over simplified...Gardenweed, hope I'm not sounding critical of a friend of yours! But there are some things there that really would do better with warm, cold, cool cycles that pop out at me.

Columbines are best sown ASAP. The fresher the seed the best germination. These are seeds which do not have a long life, usually one to two years. I like to sow these early to mimic how they reseed in the gardens.

Gardenweed... You are lucky to have had sprouts in April. Mine only came in late June and into July in the three years I sowed them and they are 'sporadic' sprouters. :O)

morz8 - I found that list by Googling "perennial + cold stratification" figuring it was probably not 100% accurate and certainly not comprehensive but would give me at least some idea of which perennial seeds need cold strat. It's nowhere near as complete or detailed a list as Clothier's but I'm not a professional or commercial grower so I figured it would at least guide me along right pathways.

I think I might be ready for some of those warm/cold/cool cycle seeds a few years down the road when I've built up a little confidence. In the meantime, I'm impressed with my first year WS results and look forward to half-killing myself planting out year two seedlings.

Tiffy - I WS 30 milk jugs of columbine last year. I think I got sprouts in two. I left the others hoping to see something green but at a guess I'd say I potted up or planted out less than a dozen plants out of all those jugs. I'm LESS than enthused about growing columbine via WS this year! I will, but I'm going to shake seeds over the potting mix like adding pepper to scrambled eggs and sow not more than TWO milk jugs. They are definitely slow to germinate and the polar opposite of foxglove which germinates--quickly--at a rate of about 250%! I took photos of the foxglove, the lychnis, the penstemon and a few other sprouts. The columbine? Wasn't much to see.

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Oh good, I'm glad it wasn't a friend or neighbor, someone you really enjoy. I don't really know of a complete list along those lines, we still find ourselves resorting to looking up suggestions for each individual plant for the most part. And I'm old enough to remember when that took owning the books or making a trip to the library.

With that one though, 4 of the first 5 will often do better (not that no germination is possible) with a beginning warm moist period. Aconitum (Monkshood), Alchemilla (Lady's Mantle), Alstroemeria (Peruvian Lily), Astrantia - then of course helleborus ....

You've got the confidence now :) It just takes a little more pre-planning than straight winter sowing, either by sowing those things in Fall, or sowing a few weeks before solstice (or whenever you normally will winter sow) and leaving them inside till time to go out for mother nature to finish them. I know you don't want a row of milk jugs lined up on your mantel through the holidays, but there's always the option of putting the seeds in with a tsp of moist vermiculite in a tiny zip lock and leaving that (dated) on your desk - then sowing the contents, vermiculite and all when you are ready to winter sow.

It's really not cheating :) and whatever gets you to the seedlings is OK.

So far, the seeds I will be ws are:

Callicarpa dichotoma 'Japanese Beautyberry'
Callicarpa Americana 'American Beautyberry'
Centranthus ruber 'Rosyred'
Agastache repestris 'Sunset Hyssop'
Campanula latifolia 'Brantwood'
Hollyhock 'Creme de Cassis'
Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy'

These are the ones I can think of at the moment. I do not plan to sow as many this year, my gardens are pretty full and I usually end up giving them to my neighbors. I'm looking for Winterberry seeds but I most likely won't find female and male seeds.

I sowed campanula brantwood a few years ago and loved them but for some reason, they didn't come up this year. I think they may have been strangled out by other plants close by.

I have a large bag of Miracle Grow garden soil so I'll most likely be using that, it's hard finding a good soil for ws at this time of year. I've had pretty good germination in the past with MG so I'm not too concerned.

Happy Winter Sowing!
Linda

Gardenweed, those are great photos. May I please use the last photo in the class handouts I am giving out for Tuesday?
They illustrate a whole lot of things I have to use multiple of my own photos for.

GGG

Morz, I must say thank you!! For 2 things, One reminding me I had this book of my grandmothers. For 2 reminding me I had this book of my grandmothers, lol. No seriously, I have been wanting to figure out what would be a good flower to plant for my solstice sow that would remind me of my grandmother (she died 5 years ago). Well I have been debating between chocolate flower because of the bloom and she always loved sweets but she was diabetic or sweet peas, cause she had such rosy pink cheeks. Anywho, since you reminded me of the book, and on the book is a yellow flower I think chocolate flower it will be, that will be very suiting.

1947 copyright!! I think I may do some reading!! The old fashioned way!!


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I am bumming out over hearing columbine are hard to WS!! THESE ARE MY FAVE!!! Don't know how fresh my seeds are. Some I bought from ebay & others I received in trade. What can I do to increase my odds of getting these to germinate??? I do keep my seeds in the fridge for the most part.....

Jodie

Well I posted most of mine in my Help Question:
I chose perennials that I had no success from direct sowing in the past.
Glad to read about the Columbines, because I was debating about when to sow them.

I don't have any of those on my list Eileen... I don't have any of those seeds. :-)

After seeing Linda's post, I realized I had forgotten to add Callicarpa Americana to my list.

I knew that Tigridia pavonia - shell flower was for zones 8-11, but I still wanted to try it since I had the seeds. I can wait on WS those until later, and I can plant them in pots so I don't lose them next winter.

I've always had really good luck with Columbine, that was why I thought it would be iffy to plant it now - the first warm snap, and they come right up for me!

GGG - you are more than welcome to use the photo above as a handout. Are you teaching a WS class? Are there any other pics that would help? I took quite a few. Just let me know.

morz8 - a row of WS milk jugs lined up along the mantle wouldn't bother me in the least. Problem: I don't have a mantle. I do have a small folding table I purposely brought inside & washed for just such WS urgencies. I think I'll give it a try with the lady's mantle altho' I WS that last year not knowing about the warm period and got excellent germination. I'm not growing the others you mentioned.

Could I substitute Perlite for the Vermiculite? I have oodles of different size little zip lock baggies.

I like sterile sand better than perlite if I didn't have vermiculite myself - both just seem to hold an even moisture content for me over perlite - and that may not be true of the smaller milled perlite, comes in different sizes. Do you have sand?

Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is always my first sprouter. Wonderful annual, fragrant, and does really well with the HOS method. Poppies also sprout very early, but I direct sowed them by scattering the seed in early March.

Columbine is not hard to WS, they sprout abundantly for me, although somewhat sporadically meaning that some seeds will continue to sprout through the Spring and summer. They reseed a lot in the garden too. As long as you have viable seed, and surface-sow them, they will WS very well.

I have wintersown columbines with great success and we have harsh winters. They do really well with this process.

Can Sweet Pea - America (Lathyrus odoratus) be WS?

I've also added:
Callicarpa americana
Salvis - 2 different one's
Painter's pallet

I still have more to go through. This is exciting!

I didn't realize columbine is supposedly hard to sprout. I always have good luck and get enough plants to share with my sister. Now I'm jinkst I bet!

morz8 - I've got sand--bird grit from the pet supply store. I knew I had a bag of Vermiculite and found it in the trunk of my car this afternoon. The alchemilla mollis seeds are currently in a moistened teaspoon of it in a little Zip lock baggie here on my desk, marked with the date. They'll go out in the cold a few weeks from now in their WS container.

Eileen, I've heard of and read in one of my gardening books about using chicken grit but not bird grit..have you had good luck with using the bird grit? Sure would be a lot easier to find I would think.

I'm supper careful because I have a black thumb. But I've germinated columbine in the refrigerator just sprinkle the seeds over the damp soil put them in the frig and wait for them to germinate. It takes 6 to 8 weeks. Mist as necessary to keep the soil damp.