I'm thinking of trying...never done it before.

I hope you do try it.. It's not always 100% successful but it's got a pretty good success rate in my book. I have been doing it for a few years and some years have been better than others but it hasn't stopped me. There is lots of info on the internet so read up on it and give it a try. It is a great way to get your gardening fix in the middle of winter. I just went and bought some more potting mix yesterday and will probably start the end of January. I hope you will let me know how you do. :)

It would probably be a fun thing to do in winter. We have late springs (I'm in Halifax) so I probably wouldn't want to start until later.

Any particular seeds you recommend? I'm thinking of doing a small cutting garden this year.

You are close Candy! I think you're one zone warmer, but that's not a huge difference.

I should do purple coneflowers, I really love them. And maybe black eyed susans too. I think the ones I have right now are biennials, which isn't ideal.

I should see if I can find some stuff to winter sow that would work well in part-sun. That's where I actually have a lot of space.

I have lots of black eyed Susan seeds to trade. I wintersowed them last year and they did very well...also purple coneflower seeds. I have blue lobelia seeds that could be wintersown and they like it shady and moist. Would you have any seeds to trade? The trading forum isn't too active lately.

Unfortunately I've never saved seeds before (I'm a relatively new gardener). I do have a few seed packages leftover from last year, but not enough that I'll have anything extra to trade, I don't think. But, I will double check and let you know!

Blueocean, annuals would be the way to go for a cutting garden. If you search for annuals or hardy annuals and wintersowing, you will probably get a lot of information. You can further your search by then searching for annuals for part shade or annuals for cutting garden. If you have any areas with lots of Sun, zinnias are pretty easy and make great cut flowers. Annuals don't need to go out as early.

Candy Max, coneflowers and rudbeckia are two of my favourites and I am WS both this year.

Hi I'm a newbie to this site but not to gardening. I'm in zone 5b btw and It's officially winter in the greenhouse. It's cooled off and temps are in the 50's and 60's F the passionflower, geranium and mandevilla and still pushing out flowers. January is a good time to sow some cool weather crops. I currently already have carrots, collard greens, leeks, kale, celery. I am planning to add spinach and radishes.

I see you guys grow perennials?

Do you guys grow by windows? or grow lights?

This is where all the seedlings come to in by end of Feb early March

Hi Matt. Nice Greenhouse! Most of us who wintersow don't have a greenhouse so we use plastic containers, such as gallon size milk or water jugs and place them directly outside. We cut the containers at the half way mark on three sides so we can open and close them, make drainage holes in the bottom, fill them with potting soil, and plant our seeds, usually sometime in Feb or March. The containers are exposed to rain and snow and whatever else Mother Nature sends their way, but by spring we are rewarded with tons of tiny seedlings. The seeds seem to know when it is safe to sprout and the plants are much hardier than those sown indoors under lights or on windowsills.

I also grow in coldframes but they are generally too full of lettuce and spinach to provide much room for sowing perennials.

Candy Max, I double checked and I have even fewer seeds than I thought, so I won't be able to trade this year.

I did find some echinacea seeds so I'm hoping to winter sow those shortly (we're under 20 cm of snow right now, so I'm not sure where to put the container). The rest of what I have are mostly tender annuals so I'll give them a shot in March or April.

Greylady, I think I'll try some zinnia's in the full-sun bed this year and see how they do. I've never had much luck starting stuff from seed directly in the garden, so hopefully this will work better.

Winter sowing seems to have worked well so far. Everything I started in February (shasta daisies, lupines, echinancea, etc) came up, except for the echinacea, but I think the container didn't have enough drainage.

I started the more tender annuals/perennials a couple of weeks ago (alyssum, cosmos, marigolds, zinnia, chives). Most things are coming up well, except for the chives (but the container got kicked by my daughter). Hope my plants live through transplanting, and everyone else's gardens are doing well!

Hi blueocean. Congrads on your success. Its such fun seeing the little plants for the first time. About 2/3 of my wintersown containers came up. I think I needed more drainage holes too...always a learning experience. Now to find places to plant all the little guys! I didn't manage to start the tender annuals in containers so I'm going to direct sow....hopefully before the rain starts today. Enjoy your garden this year!