Yes! I love starting seeds, I never fail to marvel at the glory of it, how life springs from those seemingly dead, hard specks or pebbles.

I ordered a couple packets of zinnias in late fall I have to have just to be sure I could get them -- don't know if the seed-buying craze of the pandemic years has cooled down yet but didn't want to take chances the seed houses would be sold out. I still have to sit down and make my list for the rest of the vegetables and flowers I want to grow.

I'm debating placing an order from Prairie Moon for some native perennial seeds. What is holding me back is the chore of having to grow those on to beefy enough size to hold their own back in the meadow -- plants have to duke it out for themselves back there, small starter plants likely won't survive with all the other large grasses and plants that are firmly established. So I don't know.

I have a bunch of seeds started in sixpacks for a flower garden where I volunteer. Most are annuals but a few perennials. Gaura, Dusty Miller, Shasta Daisy, Gilia, Linaria, Alyssum, Clarkia amoenae, Clarkia unguiculata, California Bluebells (Phacelia), Baby Blue Eyes and Five Spot. Almost 300 baby plants.

Seeds are fun, but more and more I'm just planting them and they never find their way to a decent spot in the garden! It's mostly seeds in pots and then set them out now to sprout in the spring, and I love seeing what comes up and when they sprout, but then taking care of them? Not quite as much fun as watching them sprout. Some I end up giving away, some get jammed in and maybe survive, and the rest sit there in their pots all summer making me feel (somewhat) guilty.

They're usually seed exchange seeds, so only like a dollar or less a packet because of the shipping, and I'm old enough now to figure if sprouting them is all I want to do well let me have my fun! Except for the dahlia seed which I will pamper along because I think I want beds full of dahlias this summer :)

I'm planning to sow some stuff tomorrow, just have to clean and send off the last of the seed I'm donating before I can start.

300 seedlings in a greenhouse sounds like a lot of fun!

Porkchop have you ever considered a fall roundup attack or cardboard smothering and then put some seed down? I'm sure you have but I've never had much luck with transplants straight into a meadow area... although I admit I'm more one to plant and then they're on their own...

I am seeing some plants starting to come up from seed I've thrown around though, and that's exciting. I have a plethora of mugwort I'm trying to spray away and the bare spots become potential seed areas.

" I love starting seeds, I never fail to marvel at the glory of it, how life springs from those seemingly dead, hard specks or pebbles."

I could easily have written that porkchop. I feel the most connected to plants I have grown from seed. I only grow perennials so it is often a process of up-potting at least a couple of times but so worth it. Some plants like Coreopsis grandiflora/lanceolata & Linum perenne are much faster and can often be planted out in their first year.

I will be doing winter sowing very soon but I am on a major tossing and cleaning spree right now....then like you I can reward myself.

I love starting seeds and watching them grow. For me it is not so fun to plant them. However, in the garden where I volunteer the other volunteers love planting things so it works out well.

In coastal Southern California my 300 babies aren’t even in a greenhouse! I did try to keep them out of the heavy rain we had last week.

Well my Christmas tree is still up but I took some time out to winter sow about a dozen containers. I may eventually just be one of those people that leaves their tree up all year. I could claim I love Christmas. lol It was easier and more enjoyable when my kids still lived at home and we could share the chore of putting it up and taking it down. Now I procrastinate.

I sowed Cardinal flower (mine died from drought), standing cypress, asclepias viridis (?), phlox drummond, salvia coccinea, echinacea purpurea and seeds I saved from e. 'Cheyenne Spirit', penstemon hartwegii 'Scarlet Queen', penstemon mexicali Sunburst mixed, salvia roemeriana 'Arriba', agastache rupestris 'Apache Sunset', asclepias tuberosa from the neighboring field that for some reason always grows taller and has larger leaves than the butterfly weed out in my field. The two fields are always cut at the same time for hay so I wanted to try a few in my own yard to see if there's any difference.

I have a pile of seed packets still to sow. Doing mostly perennials first but have a lot of annuals too. I've accumulated a shameful amount of zinnia seeds. I bought some on clearance last fall and then ordered more and then bought even more at Menard's last week. If I planted them all, it might cover an acre of two. lol

I was really happy to find a Burpee zinnia called 'Forecast' at Menards. It's supposed to be a good one for butterflies.

I can't find my lettuce seeds! The Walmart near me used to carry red leaf lettuce in their produce department and now everything is green. So I bought three kinds of red leaf lettuce seeds to try last fall and they're hiding. I'm wondering what else is hiding with them.

I love the planting part. It's prepping an area that slows me down. I tend to wait too late to smother grass with plastic or cardboard. I need to do better at planning ahead.

Porkchop - I placed an order with Prairie Moon too. I have never grown Mountain Mint and they had a couple kinds I wanted to try. I ordered pycnanthemum incanum and p. muticum. Native seed places are sometimes VERY generous with seeds, often hundreds in a packet. You may have enough seedlings to risk putting some out when they're little and saving a few in pots for later if they don't make it. For me, keeping them watered the first summer is an issue, so I think it may work better to plant in the fall so the roots have time to get established.

I’ve been a seed grower and seed saver for ages. I have cats and I grow wheat grass for them during winter. My last container was spent so I sowed my first seeds of the year a few days ago. I’ll start sowing garden seeds in late March and I usually sow my impatiens, parsley, and any perennial seeds first. I definitely want to start more Trollius chinensis this year.

I am trying to figure out my seed orders. There are things I grow from seed every year because it is impossible to find them in local nurseries - like tall blue ageratum. Other things I grow from seed because I want a mass of something and seed is cheap and easy - Rudbeckia, coneflower, agastache, etc.

That said, sowing seeds and most esoecially pricking out and potting up seedlings, and planting everything out is a lot of tedious work and I’m trying to be realistic about the quantity of seed I’m ordering and the associated time investment!

I too have sown seeds for years. This year I am drastically cutting back. No, really.

I wintersow, and in my farmers market days had 250+ containers in my driveway. The last few years has been more like 70-80.

I am one of those people who, despite my success with wintersowing, have annual attacks of anxiety over germination, so I always sow extra, "just in case". And then of course every seed sprouts. Which is why I too probably dislike the planting out part! Because after all, not only do I plant many seeds out of a packet, but I have to have 16 different kinds of cosmos, 12 colors of zinnias, 8 different kinds of tomatoes - good Lord, it's a curse lol!

Concurrently, I am also really trying to change my gardens over to more manageable shrub borders. So I have been trying to sow less each year and while I'm having some success there, I really haven't been as self-disciplined as I should be.

But I am getting better. My seed to-buy list is drastically smaller this year - only about a dozen to 20 packets, plus the dozen or so packets I have from last year. I've whittled down to only TEN kinds of cosmos lol, and about 8 colors of zinnias, and 4 tomatoes, plus one variety of cukes, some parsley and basil, and a packet of green bean seeds. I was absolutely ruthless in telling myself no to every lovely annual and every intriguing perennial that I saw in the catalogs, and stuck to my favorites, my can't-be-withouts, like my cosmos and zinnias. Gone (at least this year lol) are the years when my seed wish-lists totalled in the high hundreds $$ if not in a thousand $$. I was proud of myself that not only did I not even have to whittle down a single list this year, but that I actually kept checking to see if I forgot something because my list was so small. But I won't toot my horn too much yet - still plenty of time for impulse buys lol!

My son-in-law had an incredibly impressive, wonderfully successful, first-time vegetable garden last year, and finally it seems I may have a child who likes gardening! Yay! He's still more into vegetables, but hey, I'll take it! Plus it takes pressure off me having to grow vegetables, hence me only having tomatoes and cukes, which I think I will always have in my garden, at least a few plants. And, something that makes me happy, he is a convert to winter sowing so I get to share that fun too.

So hopefully, the plan this season is to spend less time trying to figure out where to plop hundreds of annuals and dozens of vegetables, and instead focus on planning, buying, and planting out shrubs that will in time make my garden less labor intensive.

:)

Dee

P.S. Oh, and I'm very excited that we are setting up two small raised beds for my 3-year old twin granddaughters to have their own little gardens! We are going to give them their own wintersowing containers to do too. They love to help their father in the garden (although one of them's idea of helping is to stand there and eat all the Sungold tomatoes off the vine - and honestly, who can blame her?) and they always help me when I am over there working in the flower gardens. My own kids never took to gardening, so here is my second chance!

Dee, I’m so fickle I annoy myself. My perennials and shrubs are finally maturing nicely and here I am sad that I have less room for Zinnias.

Having gotten my xmas tree down this week, I am ready for seed-starting ! I haven't pulled my seeds out yet but I know I will stratify some in ziplocs with moist soil in the refrigerator... I'll post again when I have my 'plan' figured out and specific choices to sow. Too many seeds, too little time (and space)

Markay I will ALWAYS find room for at least a few zinnias! And cosmos. And rudbeckia. Oh and a few marigolds. LOL

Thought of this thread today when I got home from work - a catalog from Prairie Moon nursery was on the table. Uh oh....

:)

Dee

seed catalogs are my kryptonite.

I'm doing it for the first time in 5 years. Will be ordering from Sheffield Seeds for trees and shrubs and Jelitto for perennials. Will be germinating some lily crosses I made myself (hopefully - I didn't store the seed correctly but there's a lot of it) so doing it in a closet to protect them from my cat. He loves grass and I expect the seedlings will be tempting for him; apparently any part of lilies are like kryptonite for cats. Truly deadly. 5 years ago I put plexiglass barriers around the seed trays doing it in my traditional spot - a bay window - but I'm worried he'd try to circumvent that defense nowadays.

Going to plant some non-ornamental seed, but an odd one. I saved seed from one of the new tart-lemony melons. It had to be so difficult to get those genes to express themselves, it's hard for me to believe there's going to be a single recessive one that disappears in a F2 plant...seems at least some of the offspring should be tart. I loved them, even though many people hated them. Makes me wonder if they will stay on the market at all.

" It's so much cheaper to start perennials from seed than buying potted plants "

Also possibly better. I've gotten some plants to grow and permanently establish in my garden from seed that wouldn't work for me as nursery plants from PNW sellers, like Symphyandra zangezura. They are selecting for phenotypes that grow in their climate...which is obviously different from mine.

I want a lot of Foxgloves so I'm back to wintersowing after not doing it for the last several years. The nursery prices have gone up so much that it's better to grow the easier things from seeds. I also wintersowed Echinacea, Aquilegia, and Sweet Williams. I'm using the small water bottles for the first time because I don't have the bigger ones any more, so it will be interesting to see how the little guys work out.

Sandyslopes, I unintentionally learned that the way to have a lot of foxgloves is to let them set seed and then cold compost the cut stems and then spread the compost around. These are growing in my veg garden now. lol!

I've been winter sowing for the last five years or so. This year I have sown Kieiringshoma, and a climbing monkshood. I have done both of these the last few years, I get good germination, but have not yet one that survives pricking out and potting up. Part of the issue is the potting mix I was using, too heavy, and procrastination, not getting them potted up early enough so they can grow on to get strong enough to survive winter. This year I promise to do better.

I've also sown several No ID Clematis, a large, late blooming white, a large late blooming blue, a medium sized mid summer blooming maroon, a mid summer blooming powder blue as well as some clematis Sugar Candy. last year I did some of these and also had decent germination in spring.

In addition there are some Actea, a Podophylum, rosa Above All, a couple of trilliums and some Fooled Me daylily.

I also have some hosta seeds from Shadowland Wu La La, Barbara Ann and Humpback Whale. Forgot about them as they won't be sown until late Feb.

All of these are collected from our garden. I've never had any of the trilliums germinate, maybe this is the year.

Hmm. A little bored with the snow coming down and then a stretch of cold, so maybe more seed sowing?

Annuals, veggies, and perennials from seed have been mentioned, and Dee you mentioned leaving seeds and moving to shrubs, but how about shrubs and trees from seed?

It's just as easy except for one thing. You have to be ruthless. 25 zinnia seedlings are fun, but 25 young birch trees? You have to be ready to either fill your property in two years or be very willing to chop and eliminate 98% of your 'babies'!

Magnolia are easy from seed. My yard could handle two or three maybe, but fourteen? Even planting them in 'bunches' isn't going to help, and the rabbits only keep them small for the first few years. But they're so cool when you get that first bloom!!

Ninebark is also cool. A pot of seedlings from 'Diablo' can give a whole range of foliage colors, and I'm thinking if they're just a foot or two apart it might turn into an interesting mess. Or maybe they'll all die this winter. That might be more helpful.

oh, kato, I don't know.... ruthless is not usually a word used to describe me, or at least me in the garden lol! I HATE to thin seedlings - I just can't intentionally throw away a perfectly good seedling! Also, I imagine those trees and shrubs, for the most part at least, must take a LONG time to mature? Not sure I have the patience - I hate that due to budget constraints I have to buy little 8 inch shrubs and trees that are two feet tall lol. Not sure I could wait for seed-started ones.

Snow here too today (as I guess in most of the US!) and I thought about wintersowing until I remembered my potting mix is outside, most likely in one big solid frozen lump. Meant to bring it in before this next round of snow.

"...Part of the issue is... procrastination..."

Welcome to my world, Senior Balloon! I'll have a little welcome party for you... when I get around to it haha! No but seriously, my seedling success - and therefore my garden in general! - would be so much better if I didn't procrastinate half as much as I do!

Can you elaborate on this climbing monkshood you mentioned? I've never heard of it or seen it before...

Beautiful foxgloves, party music!

:)

Dee

party_music, that’s a nice stand of Foxgloves! I let them go to seed when I have them, but I didn’t think about cutting down the stalk and letting it lay on the ground like that. I bet that spreads even more seed that way. I’m going to try it.

I can’t decide if onion seeds would be good for wintersowing or will they come up later than if I start them under lights? I have limited space under my light set up so it helps to be able to wintersow. Anyone have experience with starting onions this way?

@katob Z6ish, NE Pa Did you collect the Ninebark seeds or purchase them? I have two physocarpus, Ninebark and the other is Amber Jubillee...I think. Never really thought about collecting seed, wonder if it's too late this year to try?

Sandyslopes, foxglove seedlings and plants always transplant easily for me. I was so overrun with foxglove in 2024 that I was lifting and giving away plants ‘by color’ while they were full size and blooming, and everyone reported back that they continued to flower and took just fine in their gardens.

sandyslopes I did wintersow onions one year but I'm sorry it was sooo long ago I don't really remember much about their timing. I don't recall having any issues with them so perhaps there was no problem, but I couldn't say so for sure one way or the other. Maybe try a few by wintersowing and then some indoors and compare for future reference?

:)

Dee

Most years I start only annuals and tender perennials from seed, and last year I did none. This year I'm hoping to grow Echinacea pallida and the species Echinacea purpurea from seed. Need to start right away since cold stratification helps.

I have some green in my wintersow pots. The Sweet William in one container has come up! What I’m finding about using the small, individual water bottles is that I have to keep an eye on them because they dry out quicker.

I started onions and artichokes inside because I need the onions to get going so I can plant them early into the garden boxes. And I found out the artichokes like warmth so they’ll be inside under the lights until mid-May to June. Artichokes are my fun experiment this year. I usually pick one thing each year that's something different than I usually grow.

I have winter sowed some more and also have some sprouting since I last posted. I have lots of zinnia and marigold seed packets that I've accumulated, so I started some seeds early and had to temporarily bring in a few when our temps dropped into the mid teens.

I labeled my milk jugs with sharpie and most of them had faded by late January and were hard to read so I've gone back over them with a garden marker that I hope lasts longer. In fact, I ordered two different brands of garden markers and I'm testing them. I label my plants in my garden some too now since I've gotten older and don't remember plant names as well as I used to. It also helps where I've planted seedlings so I don't accidentally pull them up with the weeds.

I have been told that number 2 pencil is the best option for plant labels. I've been using that fr the last few years and they do not appear to fade.

The kieringshoma and the climbing monkshood have both begun to germinate. The kieringshoma popped up about 3 weeks ago, which seems rather early.

I've finally got some seeds stratifying in ziplocs containing damp soil and seeds of:

meconopsis , blue poppy

aruncus sylvestris, goatsbeard

pulsatilla, red pasqueflower

lupine

I'm growing herbs and tomatoes under lights, the tomatoes have sprouted so I'll pot those up in a week or two.

In April I'll start a tray or two outside including some gifted to me that I've let languish but have a fresh energy this year:

Gaillardia torchlight

Heliopsis (a new kind for me but don't remember its name)

Salvia Rose Queen, hopefully hardy for me

pink malva, always grew dark malva and I might try the pink and dark together - I do that with tulipa angelique and Queen of the night, have always liked that contrast :))

And I have a California poppy 'yukon gold' that I am hoping to see!

I like to host a seedling exchange each spring by June or so, as I'd love to share some of my seedlings if successful - my friends might be getting tired of it but it's a good excuse to have a potluck and sip some wine :)) And share in more of a variety than I can grow in my limited space (I have no greenhouse) - one couple especially always has interesting choices to share and some who don't grow seeds bring houseplant cuttings to share - it's a fun exchange.

Regarding the pasqueflower, I've not had it self-seed and not been able to germinate it in my past attempts, I sure would like more of it! I have some giberellic acid 3 on order for the first time from etsy, has anybody tried that to break dormancy ? Or any tips to germinate pasqueflower appreciated.

No tips to germinte pasqueflower from my own experience, but here is info from Prairie Moon:

Pulsatilla - Prairie Moon Nursery (link)

(not the same pulsatilla as you're trying to grow but may be helpful info nonetheless)

I've always just purchased it locally except the lone white one linked to above. The red is usually readily available as potted plants in the spring, as is the purple.

I ended up not ordering the seeds from Prairie Moon. I just have too much other stuff to do this spring and summer, I don't really want to baby seedlings through summer until they're big enough to duke it out with the big boys out in the meadow.

"I have never grown Mountain Mint and they had a couple kinds I wanted to try. I ordered pycnanthemum incanum and p. muticum."

I have P. muticum. It grows like gangbusters if it's happy. I had to remove it from one of the beds up by the house, it was just too vigorous there but seems perfectly content back in the meadow. I have another clump under a mature maple tree that catches just enough of the southern sun at the edge of the dripline that it grows okay; the dry, rooty soil under the maple keeps it in check here. The silvery bracts are beautiful. I remember the first time I saw it growing in a display garden, had no clue what it was but it really caught my eye; I asked the nursery owner about it and of course some came home with me :0) I've subsequently added more to the meadow out back.

More and more local nurseries are offering native plants beyond just milkweed, it seems to be becoming quite a movement, around here anyway (a very, very good thing!) So the last few years I've been able to find a decent selection of natives locally.

Thanks for your comments on Mountain Mint Porkchop. I sowed my seeds thickly in a gallon milk jug because I read they're tricky to grow from seed. My P. muticum looks liike nearly every seed has germinated but my container with P. incanum only has one so far. They're still very small so maybe it's too early to worry about where I'm going to put them all but I am wondering. lol I think they're going to have a fairly long bloom time in late summer/early fall when butterflies are the most plentiful so I was pretty pleased when I started seeding seedlings. Plant Finder says July to September bloom time. I'm glad to hear the foliage is nice too. I don't know how I missed this plant all these years. Maybe I overlooked it because it has mint in the name. P. muticum got a perennial plant of the year award.

re: P. muticum: You're really not going to see the flowers, they're small and not all that conspicuous unless you're right on top of them. It's the silvery bracts that are the star of the show.

Finally, some of my Nomocharis aperta seed, from Jelitto, is germinating! Basically everything from Jelitto that didn't need stratification is germinating, which is a great feeling. Although I wish they'd been able to fulfill the order a little faster. It took a month for the seeds to be picked and trans-shipped to KY, so keep that it mind if you take non-direct import option that doesn't require one to obtain a USDA permit.

It will probably peter out around here because the summer are too hot, which is also the fate of the high elevation Himalayan Lilium like L. nepalense...but with the price places are charging for plants, the grow it from seed option is very attractive!

https://farreachesfarm.com/products/nomocharis-aperta

Besides, as I've observed before, growing from seed increases the miniscule chance that some genetic variation will allow for one or two seedlings to survive here after all.

I just sowed more Pyrethrum because I always wish I had more. And some White Swan Echinacea, because I seem to have lost my plant. :(

Pyrethrum practically vibrates with color. :)

I'm impressed.... I've been a seed-saver for ages... my Pyrethrum seed was saved by me in 2016 and the seeds sprouted in just a week. I didn't realize my Echinacea needed cold strat, so on 4/11 I potted my seeds from 2018 and stuck them in the veg drawer of my fridge for about two weeks, took them out recently and they're sprouting today... 5/5.

I'll post a pic later, but I'm 'tremendously chuffed' as the English would say, that I finally got Pinus gerardiana to germinate. I failed the last time I tried to grow them. This mysterious pine is like a lacebark pine with large, edible supposedly delicious nuts.

Fair use extract from conifers.org, picture by Gaurav Verma.

Now I just have to manage to live to 100!

Wow, I just did some research on Pinus gerardiana. Congrats. I hope it grows well for you.

Congrats on your new baby pine tree. What interesting bark!

I dig out old seeds sometimes too Party Music and I agree it's thrilling when they sprout. Love the brightly colored pyrethrum.

I have soo many seedlings still in containers from winter sowing and no plan. lol I just stand in my yard and stare, wondering where I'm going to put them all.

That is the definition of a gardener: someone who stands in the yard and stares, wondering where they’re going to put these new plants. There’s always room. If not, think pots! :)

Lol, I honestly think I do more standing around and staring than I do actual gardening! I'm convinced my neighbors must think I've lost it.

I believe it used to be referred to here on GW as WALAT - walking around looking at things

:)

Dee

" Lol, I honestly think I do more standing around and staring than I do actual gardening! I'm convinced my neighbors must think I've lost it. "

GUILTY AS CHARGED!

I think my neighbors might think I'm admiring my plants*; and to some degree I am, but I believe that I am mainly planning my next steps and dreaming about the potential of any given area.

* - I'm sure they also think I've lost it.