I have not done it but my intention is to plant mine in the spring. I am getting a mini greenhouse from Thompson and Morgan. It's small enough where I can bring it inside the patio door if we get a cold spell like we usually do every May. My deck is southern exposure so this greenhouse should do great there.

I usually buy my tomato plants in April so I can have tomatos by mid-June. This should work well for them too while they are still small.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm................and I just thought of something else. Rumor has it that the Hosta Elf still has a ton of seeds to send out!

Here is a link that might be useful: Thompson & Morgan mini greenhouse

I have seen those mini greenhouses before and thought about getting one. Our patio faces south, so I though that would make an ideal place for it, but we also get quit a bit of wind here, so I was afraid the thing would blow away, lol.

I have some Frances Williams seeds I collected last fall, so if Hosta Elf is reading this and knows who might like some of these.......lmk ;-)

I have tried wintersowing before but not with hosta, but I have some seeds of my own that I might try. One point I would make is do not use small containers...the web sites mention things like lasangna trays from frozen dinners and things but from my experience the dirt must be about 3-4 inchs think or it will dry out...I use 1.5liter milk jugs.

I'm trying winter sowing right now,except I have hostas seeds in pots outdoors. I don't know yet how they will do,but I'll let you all know.They are just covered by oak leaves and that's it. Not out in the open too much. I figure hosta seeds self germinate if you let them just fall to the ground,why not plant them intentionally? It should work,as we don't have freeze and thaw cycles around here! We shall see. Phil

Phil - I plan to do what you are doing. Plant them in pots when I get my mini green house. I have at least 200 seedlings come up last year in my beds. I was surprised because of the lack of snow cover and a less than ideal winter. Even more so they came up in areas that were 4" deep with mulch. They came up in large pine bark mulch - their roots weren't even in dirt!

Even if I had the room I don't know if I would start them indoors in January. I'm all about less work! lol Heck if they can grow in cracks in the driveway I see no reason to pamper them! Who was it that traveled to a nursery out east last spring and pulled up hostas out of the cracks in a driveway. Didn't she call one Driveway Surprise in honor of eKn???? LOL

Teresa

I did winter sow a few of my hosta seeds last year, as well as starting others indoors. I had what I'd consider ok luck with the winter sowed hostas. Not as many of them germinated as those I planted indoors, and they were also behind in size during the spring. By the end of the summer, I couldn't see any size difference or quality difference between those that were winter sowed and those that were started indoors. I'd do it again, if I had a lot of seeds but wouldn't if I had only a few seeds (because in that case the lower germination would hurt more). Also, I'd sow the really desireable seeds indoors.

Glad to hear you had some success with winter sowing them. I am starting to get my containers together and went a bought soil today. It is supposed to snow tomorrow, so I figured it was a good day to prepare all my stuff for winter sowing. I was going to try some seeds that way, and start some seeds in the house on my growlight cart.
Jen

I winter sowed some hosta seed last year as an experiment. What I found was that the seedlings emerged at the same time they would have if I had sown the seeds in spring. No damage was done, but there was no advantage to it either. I would sow indoors if I wanted an early start.

What I like about the winter sowing is that it is less fuss and dosn't take up room indoors that I don't have. I've also found that the winter sown germinate around the same time as seeds planted in the ground, but that is okay with me. They don't get leggy or succumb to mildew as they can inside, I'm not fussing with lights, etc. Since they are in containers, they are not competing with weeds and I can move them around as I please. My mistake with hosta seed before was starting them in containers that were too shallow. I now only winter sow in larger containers that I cover with clear trash bags. I've let plants grow for over a year in these large containers and I like having that option as opposed to being forced to get them into the ground quickly or pot them up into something larger.