With perennials I've found that it doesn't matter when you sow the seeds. You just have to wait till frost is over to plant them out since they haven't had time to adjust to cold winter yet. I plant them all spring and summer long.

With biennials, you should plant them out the end of summer which gives them time to form their little bun of leaves before winter, and will bloom the next spring.

Last year I sowed about 300 perennials for a new garden. Took me till the end of July to get them all in the ground LOL. I also plant for most of the season. As long as they get he extra attention they need if planted late in the season, they'll pull through. Can't wait to see what that garden looks like in full bloom this year. Come on spring!!

Just sowed two flats. That's 288 plants in 12 varieties. Dropped almost a whole packet of Mother Of Thyme into one cell. couldn't see them to save them. OOPS! Only 6 more flats to go (maybe 8).

Many perennials require a chilling period to sprout. How do you deal with those requirements? Do you have a standard method for all, or do you keep careful track of who needs how many weeks of cold, and who needs to actually freeze? Also, some perennials take months to sprout...so the directions say. How do you keep your patience up long enough to get them to sprout?

So far,my experience with chilling involved only the seeds. I put them in the back of the refrigeator for a few weeks, then plant them as soon as i take them out. I've only had a few varieties that need this, and I was successful. I keep a simple notebook/journal each year telling me when I sowed, where I intended to plant, what the germination time is, size of plant, etc. When sowing the flats, I do my best to keep the germination times together. As I watch the germination progress, i note in the journal when the true leaves form, when I transplant into pots, and anything else I think might help the next year. I try to time the transplanting so i can get them into the greenhouse when the night temps don't drop below 50*. Being New England it doesn't always work out that way, and the pots stay in the basement under the lights for a while. My greenhouse isn't heated right now, so it's more of a really big cold frame.

Well, I could not help myself. Just received another order of seeds. Gotta get busy sowing. I'm building a new hoophouse in the back yard. Not enough room in the existing greenhouse lol. I'll use my benches in the greenhouse as a transplant station, then move everything into the hoophouse. If I can ever get to that point.