Happy sprouting Gillian. My obcession with peering into containers with sprouts is coming closer and closer to the seasons end as things get taken out to the green house for transplanting. Just a few more containers of seeds to sow and I will be done.Watering in the green house is getting time consuming, I guess progress has its price...lol..Jean

I'm having amazing results ( I think, for a newbie) so far with my sprouts. Downstairs I have varying amounts of Johnny Jump-ups, dianthus, tomatoes, leeks, marigolds, zinnia, maltese cross, dame's rocket. I'm even seeing the first sign of true leaves on the tomatoes =:) I also transplanted the measly 5 leeks yesterday and they haven't died. I think I'll plant more of those now that I have an idea what to do.

I told DH I was going to have to wait until Monday for him to go back to work before I start anything else in the bathroom "nursery". He keeps leaving the door open and letting the heat out, LOL !

Northspruce I hope your hollyhocks make it. There's just something about plants that have either been passed down, or ones that have been growing in the yard for a long long time. You have some roses from your grandmother, too, don't you?

I started tomatoes under lights March 28 and they are just starting to sprout. I let them dry out so I was worried.

Yes NAF, I had Grandma's roses too but unfortunately they didn't like the new house and have one by one left me. :0( I think the last one died last year. I still have a lot of other roses, just not Grandma's.

I spoke too soon, I have a sprout in my Cuphea now too and two more hollyhocks. :0) I love sprout season!

A lot of mine have sprouted too, but i used older seed for the impatiens and that hasn't come up yet. I'm hoping it does - it's only from last year.

I've only tried impatiens once but they came up beautifully with new seed (and were ready to flower but all got killed outside by a early June frost). However, the following year, none of the leftover seed I had germinated. I guess the viability of the impatiens seeds drops off very quickly.

On another note, I haven't had much luck getting Lavatera to sprout. The seed is new but I've only had about 30% of them germinate. Anyone else have problems with Lavatera? This is my first time trying it.

I do my lavatera outside, and if i remember right, not a lot sprouts. I don't usually have a lot of it when it's time to plant.

Some of the impatiens is coming up, maybe half of it, which is not too bad. The place where i usually plant the impatiens has changed since both my cherry trees almost died last year and we pruned off all the dead stuff so there's little shade.

I see some of the tomatoes have sprouted too.

groggyfrog

I always do my Lavatera outside, too.

I generally use a seed tape, use about 10 feet of it, and end up with about a 12' long x 2.5'wide mass of plants. I get blooms well into September and even October if the weather doesn't get too cold. People are always amazed when they see my Lavatera. I generally let it go to seed in the fall, and in the spring quite a few of them come up. I've been known to dig up volunteers and transplant them and they do fine.

I've only got 3 Lavatera seedlings that have come up inside so maybe I'll try sowing some outside as well. I've always been a bit hesitant to direct sow outdoors in general because of our short growing season but I guess there's no harm in experimenting. Nothing to lose except a few seeds ;)

Groggyfrog, i "spring sow" mine - similar to Winter Sowing but done this time of year. It gives it a bit of a head start.