Zach,

If you will go to the top of this page and click on FAQs--Garden FAQs--Winter Sowing--How to Sow Seeds Outdoors, you will learn more than you ever wanted to know about winter sowing.

Clothiers (which has a separate database for penstemons :))
P. strictus , Habroanthus , Surface sow 12 weeks 40F needs light for germination. (you could get away with covering very lightly, only to help make some soil contact)
So yes, a great candidate for sowing and placing outdoors. If you are colder than the 40F, it's OK but it could take a little longer then and breaking the seed dormancy could stall until things are not quite so cold.

According to the same database, Aquilegia caerulea may take many weeks or even months to germinate and at warmer temperatures. You're going to have to be patient with this one, don't have your heart set on a bed full of blooms this year. ( Clothiers: Sow at 68F, germination slow may take several months)

Another little tip on the aquilegia - if you have one specific species you want, grow only that one. Otherwise they are going to cross pollinate and you won't gradually build your stock by increasing your same plants.

While not all the agastache require the moist cold to break dormancy, it isn't going to hurt any of them either. Some take longer to germinate than others, when you've chosen one specific, you can look it up on one of the databases...

You've chose some plants with longer germination times. That doesn't necessarily mean more difficult or bad choices, but be warned there isn't going to be instant gratification there :)

You also mention not being able to find the plants. Sometimes buying a couple to supplement those you are growing from seed can help through the waiting period, a little like hand holding ;) Another benefit is having your very own, very fresh seed supply - that alone can shorten up the wait, freshest seed may not have the deep dormancy that takes so long to break, then germinate. Had you looked at High Country Gardens, they should have your columbine if you felt you could treat yourself to just a couple even....

Here is a link that might be useful: Clothier database (reliable)

The three species you mentioned will do well with Winter Sowing. Just like Morz8 has written just press the seeds into the potting mix do not cover with soil. They need light to germinate. You will have to be patient when it comes to blooms. The Agastache will bloom first year, the penstomen and Aquilegia caerulea will bloom second season. But well worth the wait. Try to winter sow before spring all of the above species need cold stratification. Hopes this helps. Happy Sowing!

High country gardens happens to have everything I want, and plenty more that I didn't know I wanted until I was browsing their website last week haha! The problem is it's so expensive... I didn't even look at their shipping rates.

Thanks for the great information and that database! What a wealth of information, very, very useful! I know I wont get see flowers this year, and although I am naturally impatient, I reckon I don't have a lot of options haha (though, if the Agastache blooms the first year, it will make me feel better about waiting for the others.) The same with germination times. I don't have a lot of options when I'm being stubborn on what I want to grow, and, I suppose I can bear the wait, I just hope delayed gratification doesn't turn into no gratification.

Thanks again for all the help, I suppose I ought to go buy some seeds and give it a shot, what's the worst that could happen anyways?

Go for it! Happy winter sowing! :-)

All three of your choices have germinated and grown for me via winter sowing. Good advice given above. One more note: columbine germinates sporadically so pluck out the ones that have germinated while they are small and after they have their true leaves then plant or repot and keep the container as I have had a few at a time germinate throughout the summer and into the fall.

I keep a list of plants that need cold stratification and have columbine at 3 weeks and penstemon at 3-5 weeks. Our last frost is mid-May so I winter sow those in February/March. It doesn't hurt to have longer cold strat than listed.

Penstemon 'Rocky Mountain" sown 2-22-07 germ. 5-15-07
Agastache, 5 different varieties s: 3-07-07 g: 4-23/5-15
Aquilegia 'Rocky Mountain' s: 3-20-09 g: 4-26+

I second the comment of sowing only one variety of aquilegia if you want to keep the seed true. Most of my self seeded aquilegia are now a mix due to cross pollination.

I've never had good luck direct sowing annual poppies. Now I winter sow them in March and plant them out as HOS or let them self sow.

Good luck and good sowing.

I don't have much to add to what's already been posted. I've successfully ws all three of your desired plants. Poppies have been great for me through ws -- they come up early, too. But since they don't much like transplanting you pretty much have to use the HOS method because that way you don't disturb their roots and they can battle it out for survival in the garden. Good luck and enjoy.

Caryl

First of all, Ms. Sweet Betsy, I did not mean to ignore you before. I have definitely been looking through the FAQ's on this page, thank you for that!

And thank you all again for great advice and encouragement! I really mean it. While I am not sure if I will be successful, here's hoping right!

I have no intentions of growing other Aquilegia at this time, but thank you for the future heads up. For future reference and curiosities sake, what do you all suppose the distance between species might be? After all, maybe one day I strike it rich and buy me some of those fine, yellow A. chrysantha sold by High County Gardens....

Miles, more than most of us can achieve in our home gardens ;)

Seriously, it's really hard to 'guesstimate'. Will the flowers bloom and become fertile at exactly the same time, and how many hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, moths will visit your garden. We can try planting one on one side of a building, others in an opposite garden with the structure in between the two but there really is no guarantee. The distance that could be called 'isolating' to prevent cross pollination is much greater than you might think.

My fav long spurred yellow has always been Aquilegia longissima. I would buy the seeds from Chiltern's and not try to save my own, while hoping to get a few years life from the short lived plants. I haven't included any in this garden yet, but in my former, saving the seeds wouldn't have made sense, I had a neighbor with many pretty but self sown columbine in the pink to purple color range and the pollinators don't recognize fences ;)

Zach, I'm just seeing your post for the first time. You probably have read up on the basics, but wintersown.org is Trudi's website (the creator of WS'ing) and has a bunch of links at the bottom that run thru "how to" and such. I also love
A Garden for the house Page on WS :
http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2012/11/winter-sowing-101-6/
because it's a simple walk thru and illustrates well with pictures. You dont have to use milk jugs, tho. Whatever you have available and/or you might want to pick up inexpensively.
This is my first year and I am crossing my fingers that it's "as simple" as they say it is and weather cooperates for the maximum germination :o)
Best of luck to you

You know, growing and saving seed from vegetables, I have never thought in terms of miles for *most* things (of course, some are more promiscuous than others). It definitely makes sense though.

Sadly, I may be in the same boat as you were. There are probably half a dozen people or more within my general vicinity that grow some kind of columbine species. I think the lady two doors down from has a yellow...and maybe some others, so it could be futile to hope for a somewhat self sustaining population.

Thanks Valal! Actually, I believe I did stumble across that page through the Google., but I'm glad I took another look.

So far I have used milk jugs, an old Chinese food container (which doesn't have a lot of head room....) and an old seed starting flat and lid. So far, I prefer the milk jugs I think, except trying to get them taped back together....

"This is my first year and I am crossing my fingers that it's "as simple" as they say it is and weather cooperates for the maximum germination

I'm hoping it's that easy too. It will save me dozens (probably close to 200 actually) of dollars on landscaping projects, AND I get the stuff I actually want rather than whatever they happen to order and have on hand at the nursery . Good luck to you as well! Hopefully we'll be back here in May with pictures of our new-found success.

I wonder if you could grow a few columbine plants in an isolation cage and hand pollinate them. It'd be a bit of work but at least the seed would be pure.

Rodney

Hi Zach. I'm over on the other side of town from you, in the southeast by Southlands Mall. I found some Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine, Aquilegia caerulea, at my local Tagawa's. The seeds are by Botanical Interests. These are non-gmo seeds from Broomfield. The local type garden centers mostly carry this brand, not the big box hardwares. I'd call around to see if you can find it close by at a smaller place.

First time winter sower here, I have some Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine germinating myself. I sowed two jugs on 1/10 and 1/19. I'm worried how it will all turn out because the days have been so warm, it's not really feeling much like winter, except for the occasional snow. And these guys need a long cold spell from what I'm reading.

I look forward to hearing updates from you on your quest and if you are successful sowing them.

Good luck!

There's an Idea, Rodney! But maybe bagging some blooms and deadheading the rest. It works for veggie flowers, why not ornamentals?

Grouchy,

I like Botanical Interests. I have been using their vegetable seeds for several years now (though not exclusively) and have had pretty good performance from them. All the ornamental seeds (yeah, I got a bit carried away...) I have bought this year...with the exception of 2 or 3 which came from Beauty Beyond Belief, which is based in Boulder, have been from BI. Definitely a good, local company that I happily endorse!

However, their packets of P. strictus are a bit confusing, it says to sow the seed 1/2"-1" deep. I asked them about the discrepancy between their instructions and the the instructions from others (like the Clothier's database provided above, and Western Native Seed, another Colorado company from down near the Springs) and they are forwarding the question to their horticulturalist for me (this is all via Facebook). I do miss their old horticulturalist, he was pretty active on their FB page and would answer any questions directly, usually within a few hours to a day.

I think we are okay, Grouchy, even with the warm days (65 I saw on my way home this afternoon), my WS containers are still freezing at night.

I want to see some updates from you, too! Then we can compare to see why all your seeds sprouted and none of mine did haha. And, come on by the Rocky Mountain Gardening forum here on GW, we'd love to have you! Plus, when all your flower seeds come up, and none of mine did, you can bring your extras to the swap in May and I'll trade you some tomatoes ;).

This post was edited by ZachS on Mon, Jan 26, 15 at 13:57

Haha, you're on, Zach!

I'm beside myself right now because I just came from the other forum and saw your post and realized that you're a pepper guy! This is my first year doing peppers and tomatoes, so there is much to discuss. I will post in your thread, yes yes.

I hit up Tagawa's today and picked up Rocky Mtn Blue Columbine, Aquilegia caerulea, from Beauty Beyond Belief. I really like that they're local, that's why I bought them. I also noticed a big discrepancy in between the seed packet and their website as far as seed depth goes. I wonder if they're aware? I believe it was the liatris, but I don't remember because I went seed crazy this year myself and bought a few different things from them (as well as BI). I, apparently, cannot control my seed purchase impulse.

I also have some Rocky Mountain Beardtongue, Penstemon strictus, in a purple/blue color. I can see we have the same tastes in plants (I'm learning xeriscape in addition to winter sowing, peppers and tomatoes this year). I bought them online and it doesn't say how deep to sow, go figure. They're tiny seeds so probably 1/8" - 1/4" or maybe surface? I will look it up in a bit. They're so lovely and I'm sure since they're native, they should wintersow well. I also want them in red.

I'm a bit confused, however, because when I look up penstemon they seem to be somehow linked to foxglove, digitalis. I'm not sure if this is just internet ignorance or if they are truly related. Please tell me if you, or anyone, know. I mentioned foxglove to my garden circle and the gasps were audible due to the poisonous nature of them. I knew foxglove was poisonous, but they said its bad to even touch, and warned about pets getting near it. This saddens me because I think foxglove is gorgeous but I have a cat who likes to explore the garden as well as two kids, one old enough to know better, the other a bull in a China shop, hehe.

This is only my fifth year gardening. I'm very enthusiastic as well as determined, but I have much to learn. Last year was nothing short of a disaster, so anything will be an improvement this year. I did learn a lot though, and I'm still at it, so I must be doing it right.

Hit me up on my profile thru email if you want me to send you the columbine seeds. See you on the other forums! Yay!

You can relax Grouchy Gardener. Digitalis is in a genus that was traditionally placed in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae, but recent research has moved/placed it in the greatly enlarged family Plantaginaceae. Penstemon the same. The penstemon is not a danger in your garden.

Chances are the digitalis isn't either. If you had a toddler who might typically put things into his mouth, you wouldn't have them unsupervised outside anyway. The flowers, leaves, stems would have to be consumed to ingest the toxic properties of the drug digitalis. By the time they are old enough to leave unsupervised, you have taught them to never eat berries or fruit, leaves, flowers without asking you first.

Normally pets aren't going to bother with it - a bored puppy might be an exception temporarily. Digitalis purpurea is native here, sometimes in large colonies. I've never known of a child, dog, cat, deer, cow who/which ate it ;)

I look forward to it, Grouchy. Vegetable gardening is getting a bit... predictable... for me. Not that I am by any means an expert, and I still have plenty to learn, I think one can grow beans and tomatoes so many times in a row before they need something to supplement their interests. So, for me, I think it's time to set my sights on new horizons (of course, I will also be growing plenty of beans and tomatoes as well).

Impulse? I think it's more of a compulsive disorder for me. I have already decided to cut 2 annuals that I have seeds for from the main project, though, I will probably stick them in a nice pot just because I already have them.

Xeriscape I have a limited understanding of. While I have worked on a few xeric yard projects in my time as a landscaper, I would say I know far more about how to successfully grow a pepper than I do xerscaping a yard. But, that too, is my main focus in my personal landscaping here at the house. Not only does it more suit my laissez faire gardening style, it fits well with the mountain west/desert southwest type-plantings that I aesthetically prefer.

I have settled on the P. strictus which, the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I will be planting with the A. caerulea.

I was also intrigued by the scented Palmer's penstemon (P. palmeri) and my compulsive disorder put those in my basket as well, though, where I'm going to put it, I will have to work out between now and when it (hopefully) pops up.

I decided on Agastache ruprestris 'Sunset hyssop' from seed and at the risk of becoming overwhelmed, I will probably wind up buying a red or yellow P. pinifolius as well as a couple other other dry/heat loving plants to go along with it (Russian sage? gaillardia? ornamental grass?).

I think, in regards to your digitalis conundrum, there's a lot of keyboard warriors out there. I don't pay much attention to all the doom-and-gloom perpetuated on the interwebs. It's like the bandying about of the horror and danger of bringing a poinsettia into your home at Christmas time. How many children are killed each year because they ate a houseplant? How about a garden plant? These same people who did a google search one day and now make it their life's mission to set up caution tape around anything and everything probably don't even have enough sense to put a fence around their backyard pool. But hey, at least their tot's wont die from eating the holiday decorations or their mother's flower garden. (Of course, I am very much what they call "free range" parent, so, off my soap box now).

Thank you for the generous offer of seeds, but I did in fact buy some (last week?), I wish now I had waited, haha.

Grouchy said: "I'm a bit confused, however, because when I look up penstemon they seem to be somehow linked to foxglove, digitalis. I'm not sure if this is just internet ignorance or if they are truly related."

There is a penstemon that has the species name of Penstemon digitalis. Not sure where you're reading but perhaps someone has falsely put penstemons and foxgloves together in the same toxicity boat based on this name. As morz said, penstemons are perfectly safe to plant.

Rodney