Hi Lilyfinch,
I'm trying shasta daisys this year too. You're going to love winter sowing. March is not too late.
:)Laura

Or if you don't want to wait until March you can order seeds online and Shasta daisies are easy to find. You can keep on winter sowing until it gets too warm to wear a sweater at night!
Joann

As of March 20, it's spring sowing, but we use the same methods. :)

Shastas are one of those plants that take 2 years to bloom. A few might send up some random blooms at odd times, but year two will be fantastic. Here are some spring sown plants from 2008 as they looked in June.

{{gwi:399705}}

And lily, I'm a cottage garden regular too. It's how I built my gardens from nothing to what they were this year. It can only get better.

welcome Lily,
I think shasta daisies are the perfect plant to start with, or at least they did well for me here in zone 5 my first year wintersowing. I cannot wait to see them in bloom this summer. I have some seed left over if you'd like some, email me through GW. No need to wait until March.

MARY

I'll second Mary's welcome Lily and offer shasta daisy seeds I harvested this fall (with permission) from the neighbor's plant in exchange for a self-addressed stamped bubble envelope. Or you can just send me three first class stamps--I've got bubble envelopes. Feel free to email me and I'll give you my address along with a list of other seeds I've got plenty of. I went a little crazy with the rose of Sharon seeds--they're so easy to harvest and grow.

Lily,

I have ordered and traded way too much and have plenty of seeds for winter sowing. I'll put together a winter sowing newbie packet for you. I'll just need a regular envy and 4 stamps to get them back to you, drop me an email.

Lisa

well by my sn, you can tell I love daisies! I ws some last year and they did great! I have always said you could never have too many daisies, I have a boat load, lol. Looking forward to many, many blooms in the Spring. You are gonna love this method, it is awesome!

Shastas are super easy to WS, and they're usually among the earliest to sprout too. you'll usually see them start between very early to mid spring, though the bulk come earlier than later.

I love cottage gardening--it's the art of finding a place to put "just one more" plant ;-) WS fits in well with cottage gardening, most old fashioned plants do well, like hollyhocks, nicotiana, salvias, any dianthus, rudbeckias, helianthus, and so, so many more. When you go to a dollar store and you see their seed racks, you're looking at tried and true faves, non-hybrid, plain jane varieties--and these are the plants which are the backbone of cottage gardens. For very little money you can have a garden that will knock your socks off. Obviously, I'm a sucker for dollar store seeds!

I love cottage gardening--it's the art of finding a place to put "just one more" plant ;-)

I've come to realize that walking around the yard with a trowel and a sprouted container is a perfectly good way to design a nice garden. Some here call it the plunk n run method.

Shasta daisies ws very well. They come in so many different heights and can fit in many areas of one's garden. Some of my favorites: Snowcap, Snowdrift, Silver Princess, Becky, Crazy Daisy, Broadway Lights.