I do feel differently about the ones I grow from seed, but just because I have known them since practically before they were born! ;-) In any case, I grow hundreds of flowers from seed every year, mostly due to cost. I do supplement with purchasing plants and putting them in here and there until mine are flowering or if a particular garden needs a boost.

The growing season here in zone 5-6 is so short, I think it is really nice to purchase the plants and have the garden up and going more quickly. I winter sow now, but I just learned to do that this year. That is really nice as far as getting a lot of seedlings into the garden as well.

No one ever really asks if I purchased the plants or not. People just want to know all about what I am growing! Purchasing seeds allows me a lot more experimentation too. I can buy all sorts of unusual flowers. Next spring I will have red rudbeckias if all goes well!

I do start a lot of things from seed, but I'd have to say that it's probably 80% annuals and 20% perennials, if even that many perennials.

Interesting question. I really don't think I ever thought about it. I guess, if I really admit it, I might be a bit more proud of something I grew from seed, in a silly maternalistic way, lol - you know, you look at a plant and how big it is and remember when it was just a seedling, lol.

But in the big scheme of things, I buy or swap so many perennials, and I don't think, in general, that I feel less of a gardener for having done so. And I don't think less of other gardeners if they haven't started their plants from seed. To be honest, if I hadn't discovered winter-sowing, I'd be buying ALL of my plants!

:)
Dee

Like Dee, I start all my seeds with Wintersowing. Prior to that, I bought flats at the local nurseries and a few at K-mart.

Since I started wintersowing 5 years ago, I barely buy any plants, annuals or perennials.

I find myself visiting local nurseries to see what is available, if they have something new that I would like to try wintersowing and find that, yes, the seedlings in the flats are bigger than mine, blooming already, but I know that mine will catch up within a few weeks, and once they get going will be stronger and healthier than the nursery grown. Mine will bloom longer and last longer than the store bought and, most of all, I will have 10 times as many plants, both annuals and perennials for my garden beds from Wintersowing the seeds than if I bought them.

Most of the seeds I sow are from seed trades on the seed exchange forum and seeds that I collect from my plants in the beds and from the spring plant swap that I have every year, and most of the plants from the swap are also wintersown.

Wintersowing and seed trading has introduced me to plants that I had never heard of before, never thought of before and are not available at local nurseries.

I don't think I feel differently about the wintersown plants versus the perennials that I have bought in the past. I work hard to keep my gardens growing well, no matter where they come from or how I obtained them.

All of them are my "babies" or my "children" as the grow and develop.

What I do find though, is if i decide that I don't like a plant that is blooming, I'm more apt to just pull it out and either give it away or toss it in the trash heap or give it away. With wintersowing there are always so many extra seedlings that I don't feel bad about tossing one away and replace it with another one that is still waiting to be planted.

This past spring, I planted over 800 seedlings, all wintersown from seed. That's about a typical spring planting for me with wintersowing.

If I had paid money for the plant, then I would put up with the plant that I didn't like.

Fran

The only time I even think about where the plants came from is when somebody asks. They are almost always disappointed if I grew it from seeds, or cuttings because it means they can't go somewhere and buy it. However, it also meant that usually I couldn't go somewhere and buy it.

At this point, I grow very few perennials from seed simply because a lot of the commercial selections are better.

I've purchased or swapped most plants over the years, and each year usually started a few things from seed. I've used lights, or started flats outside in the sun, or direct-sown seeds. Thanks to winter-sowing, which is an easy, inexpensive, and effective method of seed-starting en masse, I grew most of my plants from seed this year. Only purchased a couple flats of annuals for filler and some inexpensive bare-root shrub/tree seedlings from the New Hampshire state nursery (did pick up a nice collection of plants at the Spring swap though!).

It's nice to purchase an exceptional cultivar at the nursery, or a more mature plant to get that instant effect. But I do feel something special for the plants started from seed - Evonne describes it perfectly - I've know them since they were born! They are my "babies".

Starting from seed has many advantages - you can start lots of plants for very little money. You can grow a much broader range of plants, including rare and endangered plants. I have a particular interest in native species, and growing from seed is the easiest way to cultivate a large number of them (approx. 46 species this year). It's exciting to watch a tiny seed germinate and go through the early stages of growth that you would miss when buying a mature potted plant, and satisfying if you can get a plant to germinate that is normally somewhat difficult to propogate by seed. I also enjoy observing the natural genetic variation that occurs in seedlings, and who knows, I might stumble on an exceptional plant!

For me it cultivates a more intimate knowledge of the plant when it is started from seed. I still felt like a real gardener when building gardens from nursery stock (or swap plants or a division from my mother, etc.), but starting plants from seed has enhanced the gardening experience a great deal.

Like some of the others who have responded here, I have sown a lot of the plants growing in my garden. But I have to say I don't feel any differently about them.

I think if you get down on your hands and knees and stick your fingers in the dirt to the point where you have dirt coming through the knees of your jeans and dirt under your fingernails that no scrub brush and no amount of scrubbing will obliterate, then you are a real gardener. Quite a few of the plants that I planted in my garden this spring came from Bluestone (and I am now leaving them behind, sniff, sniff!)

I can't grow plants from cuttings, they die almost instantly, and I have always felt THAT makes me less of a gardener.

I do sow. I do mostly perennials. I like it as an exercise and a challenge. (I need to propagate fern spores next.) The resulting large quantity of plants that I would otherwise not be able to afford or have access to is a big plus also. I have a lot of patience for this type of endeavor. I feel very attached to my grown-from-seeds, but now that I am moving, I can blithely leave them all behind knowing that I can easily duplicate the effort. (Does that make me a bad plant mom?) Actually, I am more attached to those plants that people have given me.

I don't think growing from seed is a necessary step in ones evolution as a gardener - just a little side path that some of us have taken.

kt - Anyone with a garden as gorgeous and obsessed over as yours is not allowed to feel defensive about not growing from seed. Got it? NOT. :-) Pruning on the other hand (JUST KIDDING!!!)

:D

"...Actually, I am more attached to those plants that people have given me..."

Excellent point, Deb! So true! I do seem to be more attached to plants that were given to me. It's a very cool feeling to know that you have a piece of someone else's garden (and by extension, a little bit of them) in your garden. It's nice to walk by a plant and think, "Geez, of all the color mums Deb had to give me, she gave me PINK!"

Oops, did I type that out loud? LOL! I'm only kidding! ;) But seriously, it is really wonderful to walk by a plant and think of the person who gave it to you, and even better if you know where in their garden it came from, because then you visualize their garden too. It just keeps that spirit of gardening passed along.

I do also tend to take better care of plants that others gave me, mostly because I live in dread that they may find out I killed them, lol!

:)
Dee

First, I didn't mean in any way to undermine the beautiful garden that I commented on, I hope you all know this. I look at the photos and dream that mine will look like that some day.

I tried winter sowing this past year for the first time and I found myself out at the local nurseries scouring for the same plants that I had winter sown.

I'm not very patient and couldn't wait for the plants to mature. I ended up giving away almost all of my winter sown plants and buying a ton of mature perennials for my town owned land project.

I, personally don't look at a garden any different because it was grown from seed. I was simply curious to know if she got a stunning garden like that by waiting for her perennials to mature. It certainly would have proved to me that patience IS a virtue.

I also treasure the plants that I got at the swaps this past year, each one is labeled with the gw name of the person that gave it to me and I seem to pay more attention to them than any others.

So, to you diggin, I would be proud to have that garden out any window in my home!!! I was simply asking and certainly didn't mean to offend you in any way! I do hope you know this.

Dee - I've got plenty of those yellowy-orange mums if you want a new foist!

Over the years I have come home with plenty of up-for-grabs plants which are not usually labels as to the originator, but, yes, those plants that I know or remember who they came from are that much more special by association. I always get a little thrill when people mention associating me with a plant also.

I sow veggie and predominantly annual seeds for the fun of it and in order to grow certain plants that are otherwise not available. It is an extension of my gardening mania. It does not matter to me how I get the plants I want. I just want to get my hands on them (yes, I have CHAD)! You can't grow Daphne Briggs Moonlight from seed, but I am pleased to say it is successfully growing in my yard along with many other plants such as lily of the valley with striped leaves that I not only couldn't grow from seed, but had to travel to purchase. Plant hunting is fun too. Anyone who enjoys nurturing plants is a gardener. Growing from seed is fun and frustrating like most of gardening.