Last updated on December 2nd, 2011
HOW’D YOUR WINTER-SOWING GO? I hope you’ll tell us what you planted in milk-jugs over the winter, and what glories (or not) the jugs revealed for you this spring. Here are my successes (among them, ‘Bloomsdale Long-Standing’ spinach, above) and failures:
My successes: Lupin, Hollyhock, Hardy Candytuft, Larkspur, Columbine, Forget-Me-Not, Bachelor’s Button, Spinach, Swiss Chard and assorted Lettuces.
My failures: Fuschsia Magellanica, a hardy fuschia I had hoped to have for the Woodland Garden. Also, this is the third year I’ve winter-sown Delphinium without success. I think the seeds of delphinium are too old by the time I plant them in January.
Be sure to tell us about your own successes and failures with seed-starting outdoors in winter. And if you have any advice for other winter-sowers, by all means speak up!
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Related Posts:
How to Transplant Winter-Sown Perennials
What to Winter-Sow, & When
Making a (mini) Greenhouse & Sowing Seeds
Winter-Sowing 101
Winter-Sow Your Veggies & Flowering Annuals Now
Eric says
Holy cow! Everything has sprouted! Poppies, 3 kinds of shasta daisies, mixed hollyhocks, catmint, Penstemon 'Red Towers', Lavender 'Munstead', echinacea.
I will definitely winter sow again next year.
Yolanda says
Kevin, almost everything has sprouted. I've already transplanted coreopsis, penstemon red rock, canterbury bells (can't wait for blooms), lemon balm, rudbeckia mix, agastache apricot sprite, false indigo, chocolate flower (per your rec).
Big failure: zinnias, but it's my own fault. They came up and then died during an ice storm. I should have covered them!
The only advice I'd give others is to avoid sowing more seeds than you can manage. My eyes were certainly bigger than my garden!!!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Eric – Bravo!
Yolanda – Brava! You can sow those zinnias again right now. They will germinate almost immediately.
Terry says
Even though I thought my seeds may have washed out of the sides of the jugs, I have german chamomile coming up by the thousands:) A couple of sweet peas survived and have sprouted also.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Terry – that's great! I recall you had a little problem when you placed jugs with drainage inside a plastic box that did not. Isn't it amazing what some seeds will endure?
Pepi Noble says
Finally success. The lettuce and something called Bug Blooms have been up for a week or so. Now today the kale, zucchini, nasturtiums, marigolds and lavender are peeking their tiny little heads out of the soil. Still a question about the zinnias. My tip is patience and enough drainage. Thanks.
Donna says
First time winter sowing. Got inspired by my friend who does LOTS of it. Started small: 18 jugs. Lots of herbs plus Sweet Willliams, sunflowers, violas, cosmos. Everything sprouted! Some is still tiny & scarce, but it's there. This is really fun. Opening those jugs was like Christmas morning!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Pepi – Are “Bug Blooms” a collection of plants that attract beneficial insects to the garden? And…you are so right about drainage. Critical when winter-sowing.
Donna – Sounds like you had a marvelous first experience. I agree — seeing sprouts emerge in the mini greenhouses after a long, long winter is so much fun!
Pepi Noble says
Yes Kevin – these Good Bug Blooms attract beneficial insects to the garden. These heirloom seeds and many other seeds are available at Hudson Valley Seeds http://www.seedlibrary.org They come packaged in artwork done by NY artists and use environmentally safe ink.
Sue says
Delphinium has been somewhat successful for me if I freeze the seeds first. But a real big problem for me… We have very very old sweet peas come up every year in our lilac bushes we have tried to reseed and grow them for neighbor. This year froze the seeds than soaked them three days and than planted them. To early to say real success yet but they did poke through the ground a few days ago …but only three of them. Wow this is like the fourth year trying to get her a plant. Maybe the freezing will be the ans there will just have to wait and see. They are coming up looking like a blade of grass. Weird…Know any secrets on Sweet Pea's?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Sue – what zone are you in?
My sweet peas sprout, and then bloom — on the dot — just before a big heat wave hits. The flowers, of course, are history once the heat gets them!
My only advice is to winter-sow the seeds in a milk or water jug in Jan or Feb. Then they will freeze naturally (unless you live in a really warm zone).
Sue says
We are in zone 4 very close to zone 3.. our weather goes all over the place.. 🙂
Betty819 says
Failures: Would you believe BES and marigolds? Rose Queen Salvia, Orange oriental poppy,butterfly weed, scabiosa mourning bride, forget-me-nots.
Still in the jugs and struggling are Heliothrope(Marine) and 'David” garden phlox, liatris
Successful: Columbine, portulaca, peachleaf bellflower, clustered bellflower, Sweet Wm. Blue Flax, Blue lupine, rose campion, yellow yarrow, white foxglove, rosie o'day, california poppies carpet of snow alyssum,snapdragon, johnny jump-ups.
Don't know if I've listed them all or not. Some are still in jugs, struggling with only one or two sprouts.
I wonder if a lot of my failures came from using the moisture control MG starting off.
It has rained so much that I think that contributed a lot to border line failure/success..I'm wondering for the third batch of potting mix, if I didn't add too much perlite, making the potting mix too light? I noticed that the potting mix wouldn't hold together when I went to take the seedlings out of the milk jugs. They kind of crumbled apart in my hand. I think that I may have rushed them to transplant them too soon.
Remember that gardening is all trial and error!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Betty – Congratulations — sounds like you had a fair amount of success! As for your failures…some seeds can be slow to sprout, among them forget-me-nots. I planted this one, too, and most of the seeds have germinated. The seedlings are still very small.
It was probably a good idea to add extra perlite to your potting mix. With all the rain you've had, it certainly didn't hurt to add this extra bit of drainage.
Betty819 says
Out of 83 containers, I'd say that maybe a total of 6 didn't germinated. Maybe they were old seeds passed on in the wintersown swap. I planted 2009 coneflower seeds; some germinated, some are only showing one or two sprouts in the jugs. I'm happy with the successes I had, just disappointed when there was only a few sprouts in some of the jugs. Some of those were the gaillardia. How's your success rate with any gaillardia? I really wanted the Orange and Lemons and the goblin to germinate so bad. Had an image of mine being like the picture in the seed catalogs..or on the websites. Hey, I dream big, don't I? I'll try again. I still have some gaillardia seeds I think. I will try to sow them in the fall? I have to learn how to sow by pinches, instead of shaking them out of the packet..to reduce so many HOS. I learn something from other gardeners experience. Thank You for this website. It is so entertaining and formative.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Betty – 83 containers? I'm impressed!
I haven't tried gaillardia, but if it didn't winter-sow well for you, I'd direct-sow it in late July or early August. Then it will get off to a good start before cool weather arrives.
Broken Barn Industries says
This was our first attempt at winter sowing and we will definitely do even more next year! Successes: tomatoes, Jacob's ladder, Canterbury bells, rose campion- enough to share at a plant swap!
Failures: gas plant (dictamnus), Korean angelica. Sort of fail: potted up three Canterbury bells and a slug worked its way through 2 pots before I caught it- ugh!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
BBI – Trading excess winter-sown seeds at a plant swap is a great idea! Two years ago I winter-sowed so much columbine that I couldn't possibly plant them all. Who knew every seed would germinate? I could have opened a little nursery.
Good to know that Jacob's ladder, Canterbury bells and campion all winter-sow well.
I'd give Dictamnus another try. Maybe the seeds weren't viable?