12! 12 little containers! Mwaa-haa-haa!! mwaa-haa-haa!!
-B

Dusty, I remember how excited I was my first year and I still get that way. This is year 4 for me. You are going to love it!

Mechele

I started a couple jugs of each yesterday: 1 gallon jugs

Phlox; Coral Reef blend
Pansy; Swiss Giant blend
Scabiosa; Grandmother's Pincushion
Hollyhock; Apricot-Peach Parfait
Lavender; White Ice
Lavender; French Perfume
Lavender; Hidcote
Nodding Onion
Chamomile; Bodegold

Hopefully I can get my butt off the computer soon and finish with these in 1/2 gallon jugs a few each;

Catnip; Lemon
Borage
Italian Sage
Creeping Thyme
French Thyme
Oregano; True Greek

than I'm done until spring sowing; except for my tom's next month.

Melissa1977

I feel your pain, last year I worked weekends so most of my sowing was done on Mondays. Fingers crossed I do not have to go back to weekends anytime soon. Happy dumpster diving! :P

I think I have about 80 jugs so far...have lot's of people saving them for me. I'm going to need a lot more than that with all the wonderful seeds I have received.

Yesterday I sowed:

Eryngium, Blue Star and Miss Wilmott's Ghost
Blue Eyed Grass
Green Jewel Echinacea (from my own garden, an experiment)
Something else...

Today:
Echinacea Tiki Torch
White Beautyberry
One other thing.

I sure hope I am doing this right. I feel very unsure of myself!

So far today 6 containers
2 feverfew
potentilla melton fire
gold gaillardia
blue rose of sharon
siberian iris ceasar's brother.

a couple of the places also didn't care if I hand-pollinated the flowers and came back later for seeds.
All together I think I collected about a pound of daylilly seeds!!LOL!!
-B

Hardy cyclamen (2 different type but in 3 jugs)
Soapwort
Fuzzy Peach tomatos (these seeds came from Wintersow.org)
Eyeball plant

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to do 5 more jugs.

Brandy - I'm impressed with the daylillies that you sowed. I've not had any experience with daylillies but would like to add to my garden at some time. Can you really get them to grow from seeds or is it tricky?

Johnny Jump-ups (violas)
Amaranth 'Hot Biscuits'
Verbascum bombyciferum (mullein)
Oriental poppy 'Brilliant'
Marigolds (two different kinds)
Alyssum 'Carpet of Snow'
Four o-clocks (mixed)
Foxgloves (mixed)
Lavender ('Munstead,' from our old house last year)
Rose of Sharon (from my bushes at the old house)
Fern-leaf bleeding hearts (Dicentra eximia)

I winter sowed daylilies two years ago, and had fantastic germination. Many were my own crosses, some I bought from other daylily fanciers. I brought a bunch of those seedlings with me to the new house, and I have quite a bit of daylily seed that I saved (refrigerated) from the old house left. I'll be sowing those as soon as I get more containers. I didn't find them to be difficult at all.

Laurel

Dianthus Firewitch
Cardoon
Hardy Yellow Hibiscus
Red Mexican Hat
Great Blue Lobelia
Lobelia cardinalis
Ageratum
Alstroemeria
Verbena hastata
Yellow foxglove
White Buddleia
Siberian Wallflower
Creeping Thyme
Monarda citriodora
Echinacea purple
Alyssum Maritimum
R. hirta "Cherry Brandy" and "Autumn colors" both collected from last year's plants. May not come true. Who cares? They're still pretty.

So far I've sowed:
Marsh Blazing Star, Starry Campion, New England Aster, Wild Geranium, Tall Bellflower, Cardinal flower, Wild Sweet William, Eupatorium/Boneset, Perennial Phlox, Black-Eyed Susan, Brown Eyed Susan, Joepyeweed, Virginia Bluebells, Ohio Spiderwort, Purple Coneflower, Wood Lily, Harebell, Foxglove Beardtongue/Penstemon, Red Columbine, and New York Ironweed.

Plus some Rosemallow and Ninebark shrub seeds...
and a Flowering dogwood tree seed or two...not sure if the dogwood seeds will work or not...

Kind of have to wind down now since I'm running out of recycled milk jugs and juice bottles! But I'm gearing up to do my annuals in the spring. Have to find some kind of containers for those...

Echinacea
5)white(from a B&B near my house)
6)purple(ditto)
7)pink(short ones from my garden)
8)purple(shuttlecock form)

9)german catchfly
10)sweet william
11)foxglove
12)rose campion
-B

I'm having to guess on ones I've saved. Some I'm pressing in soil, some I cover w/soil, and some I cover w/vermiculite.

Today, Jan 10, I sowed:

Coreopsis (double) - saved
Rudbeckia Cherry Brandy (my own double/triple - saved)
Canoe Birch - saved
Ultima Morpho Pansy (2 pkts in one jug)- lost some seeds!
Columbine Blue Star
Tuscany Burgundy/Eye Verbena
Aquilegia Nora Barlow
Tithonia

Everything in one gal jugs for now. Questions:

1. I deadhead my daylilies (neatness) and have some pretty yellow ones I'd like tons of. Do you let all the scapes go to seed or does that set the plant's energy back for following year? Those I'll have to be careful they don't cross w/my tangerine ones, not sure how.

2. Some of my containers I didn't mean to but think I only got 2 inches or a little more of soil. Is that going to matter?

3. Do you think my pansies have a chance (I'm sowing some differently later)? It said to cover w/newspaper but I covered w/soil instead.

4. I have some seeds that are 2 years and more old, not kept in freezer but at room temp. Is it worth wasting potting soil on those?

5. Guess I don't dare WS any of my lupines, right?

Have lots more to go and enough to fill several jugs with one kind. I'm holding off on my tomatoes and peppers. Will sow herbs inside.

I cannot find my iris seeds, purposely let one go to seed. I hate that. Those I wanted to WS or not bother with.

A couple people kindly helped me with my Ultima Morpho Pansies; I've still got those emails and will have to find them and try what they said to do.

Hopefully I get do the rudbeckias next week!!
-B

Daylilies are self-fertile, but also freely cross with any other daylily nearby (they're insect-pollinated). If you want identical plants to your favorite, you'd have to transplant divisions of the original plant. If you want to self-cross them (which will result in mostly similar but not necessarily identical flowers on the new plants), early on a morning, take pollen from one flower and dab it on the pistil of the same flower. The tip of the pistil should be sticky, and you should really cover it with pollen, just pile it on. If the pollen "takes," you'll see the ovary at the base of the flower thicken and swell. If the pollen doesn't "take," the ovary will shrivel and snap off easily - you'll be able to tell in a couple days. (The petals may not fall off on their own if it's a heavy-textured flower - you can just break off the petals once they've dried a bit, or you can snip or tear them off above the ovary.) If you want to cross different plants, it's the same technique: dab pollen in the AM (fertilization success is better while the temps are below 80-ish), and then put a little label on the ovary so you remember what you crossed. If you're really concerned about keeping the pollen "pure" you can gently fold a little square of foil over the tip of the pistil after you dab the pollen, so no bee spoils your hard work, lol. (Of course seeds of unknown parentage are just as lovely.)

Letting the plant set a handful of pods won't set it back at all. The pods take 45-60 days to ripen; you'll know they're ripe when they begin to split (the pods don't have to be completely brown, but the seeds should be BLACK). Each pod can yield 6-16 seeds. The seeds should be dried on a windowsill for a week or so, then refrigerated in a plastic baggie until you're ready to sow them over the winter. (I keep mine in the onion drawer of the fridge.)

If you know the name of your plant, you can find out if it's diploid or tetraploid (two sets of chromosomes, or 4 - daylilies can be either). Dips usually won't cross with Tets. Dips usually have narrower foliage and thinner scapes, while tets are often sturdier plants with thicker scapes. Check out Tinker's Daylily Database (www.tinkersgardens.com) to look up ploidy. Not all daylilies are equally fertile. Some will set as many pods as they have flowers; some won't set any at all no matter how much you dab pollen on them.

If your tangerine daylilies are the wild "ditch" lilies, they'll be sterile (or only rarely fertile), and won't be likely to cross with your yellow ones.

Winter sown daylilies develop robust root systems - I plant 4 to a milk jug, so they don't get too tangled up in each other.

I hope this helps you, Aliska!

My first time sowing perennials, so excited.
All of the above except a couple thanks to Becky!
Except for Yarrow which I picked from a plant growing wild.
And Burgundy Gaillardia which finally arrived from seed company.
Becky, your seeds are going far and wide.

ellen

Dwarf hollyhock
Lupine 'Tutti Frutti'
Delphinium 'Fantasia'
Mallow 'Vulcan'
Blue sage
Columbine (blue/white)
Cupid's dart
Foxglove 'Apricot Beauty'
Cushion spurge
Blackberry lily

So many seeds...so little time...an endless supply of milk jugs. My enabler neighbor who dumpster dives for me called this morning to say he's back from vacation and to ask if I want/need more milk jugs. Let me know if anyone on this forum could have found the willpower to say NO to him!
Go ahead--ask me if I'm still buying seed packs? Oh yeah! Anytime I see something that (1) I haven't already winter sowed or (2) isn't already growing here.
Wal-Mart finally put their seed racks out last week. I met a woman buying seeds and told her about winter sowing since she looked interested when I mentioned what I was doing. She said she was going home and check out this forum and Trudi's website. The cashier at the job lots store (I was buying more duct tape) asked how my containers are doing, if anything's sprouted yet. Wait 'til I tell her about the green wave.

That was excellent information, and I saved it. Thank you so much! So I don't have to worry about ditchlilies crossing, but they must scatter seed else why do I see so many lily seedlings around when I deadhead mine? Maybe I forgot to deadhead one. Franz Hall. It bloomed last year, it's first year but not this. I wonder why not? I yanked those seedlings all out (maybe I said this up further).

I'm excited about a new one I've ordered "Going Bananas" will put it with my other two yellow ones. It's supposed to bloom most of the summer. Got "Purple D'Oro" last fall, planted it and got to see a couple blooms, don't like it but will give it a chance.

Thank you again, read a little of this piecemeal on the daylily forum, but you summed it all up very neatly.

***************************************

Usually don't post what I sow when I sow, but today I sowed 18 cups of Blue Jay Delphinium and 18 cups of Blue Bird Delphinium. I had trouble getting the tweezers to hold the seeds and rather slopped through some of it.

I had way more seeds for 18 cups so just went round and round until the seeds were all gone. But most got in a small depression I made, and if I have multiple seedlings, should I thin them out by pulling? I don't want to risk disturbing them all by transplanting.

My son just brought me a pecan roll his young wife made from scratch, smells yummy. He said to plant him tons of flowers, so I showed him the newest seeds I'm waiting for and told him about planting the delphiniums today, showed him the tiny photos. He wants them all lol. So WS'ing them better work, spring sowed the ones I have going. He asked if they "come back every year". I said they were a short-lived perennial. Sounded disappointed.

He spotted some Foxglove Candy Mountain a couple years ago and wanted that (they take 2 years! as will the delphs), so I found a couple spares, dug them up, put in a couple pots neatly, let sit a few days, gave them to him. I wonder if he appreciates it. He can buy anything he wants. The only thing he has I'm a little envious of is his large, immaculately-kept lot and his beautiful dressed rock retaining wall. It faces south (I'll ruin the thread with another of my photos, did post it on another forum here, can't remember which), there is nothing but grass. How I'd love to be able to have an area like that to plant. He's got other areas planted very nicely with some professional designer help, but does have watering and irrigation problems and soil probably needs amending and composted because it's new and probably mostly clay from disturbance during building a few years back. I'm happy if he will be able to use my plants, just don't want them wasted after all my hard work.

To the right of the double doors:

Lawn is so boring to me now.

Aliska
When you thin the delphs don't pull, just cut them off.

Your son's retaining wall would look great with some soapwort cascading from the gaps! Soapwort comes back every year and blooms in the spring-pink flowers(it'll go nice with the spirea bushes)He's such a lucky dog, wish I had a wall!
-B

I know. It's a dream for us wintersowers and gardeners. I loved the feeling of openness there when I took those first photos I posted, so I would prefer undulating borders around and leaving a little lawn. He wanted an iron gazebo, but I think that would ruin the feeling and detract from the beautiful stonework, so I hope he doesn't go through with that desire or puts one somewhere else. I saw some really nice iron gazebos on the antique roses forum BTW, think they were priced under $1000 and looked sturdy, can try to find that post if anybody is interested, always wanted one myself.

Thanks for the suggestion of soapwort; he was asking what he could put in the chinks in the stones, and I never saw anything I thought would work very well. I thought he was being wildly extravagant (and crazy) when he had those stones trucked down from a quarry or dealer in Dubuque, but they might not have been that much overall, and it turned out to have been well worth it. I'd like to do something similar on one terrace to give more planting room, but stones that large wouldn't work for me. Maybe they have some smaller ones of the same style cut more uniformly as I love the mellow look of them. This discussion helped me think of that rather than match the ones behind the garage which are very nice but more gray, have weathered, of course.

Thanks about the delphs, went to sleep wondering about them. Will do that, but it will hurt. After starting my first delphs last year, I don't think you want them crowded although a couple closer together than the recommended 12" might not be too bad here and there.

I will suggest a nice bird bath.

Here's when it was in the building stage in June 2005, first it was more of a circle and he lost his first evergreens, but he redid it. I like it much better now. I dub it his stonehenge. I'll pass on some of the other suggestions.

Here is what I think is soapwort I found growing on city property in July 2006, was charmed by it and meant to go back and try to collect seeds but wasn't sure how or when.

Man, that's a lot of rock! Stonehenge indeed!!
-B

Coral Honeysuckle is new for me. I have a large vine of it and decided to take the dried berries and give it a try.
Also delphs give me a hard time but I "try, try, again". Anybody have any tricks for getting delphs to germinate?

Now I have to decide if I want to clean out jugs or deal with lumpy ones
Hmmm-lumpy jugs, that's kinda funny!
-B

Laurel

So in the last two days I have planted 72 containers - mostly herbs & perennials that need some cold strat (praying there is still enough cold strat time to make this happen here - nights are still cold but daytime temps are due to start rising later this week). I've also been planting a lot of my 2008 gathered seeds - in that growing season, anticipating my move, I gathered as many types of seeds from my garden as I could. Now I am hoping to reproduce some of it.

More to come!

So now he wants to buy a different kind of property and has started looking for one with more land, within commuting distance from his business which wouldn't be good to change the location.

So I can't see starting a thread on that.

But it would make me sad after all that work for him to lose that wall. I sure hope he doesn't act impulsively. As to living out, would love to have a couple acres at least but hate to lose the nice location I'm in despite problems. It would not be an option to buy his house, too big for me and too risky financially.

Thank you

Patrick

Cauliflower
Echinacea
Bachelor Buttons

It made me feel better. I am going to sow more tonight, when the counter is done with dinner duty.

Yay! I'm starting my annuals :)

Cilantro
Lavender Munstead
Kohlrabi
Dill
Spinach
Rudbeckia Hirta

One or many containers, clear cups, cell packs, 4" pots, 1/2 gal jug.

I think the clear cups with the lids in daisy trays go the fastest if the seeds can be handled individually or a few in each cup. Otherwise gallon jugs or large containers sprinkling seeds go even faster per unit. The cups with lids I fill to a certain line, tamp down and have 3", the lids are a little awkward but faster than baggies (once I have them prepped).

Strawberry Sundae Pansy
Delphinium Bicolor (lavender and blue)
Delphinium Purple Pagan
Geum Triloba (Prairie Smoke, my seeds came from Prairie
Moon yay!
Aconitum (Monkshod) lots
Celandine Poppy (scattered some in the 1/2 gal jug)

Now I need to save up containers for the annuals!!
-B

Has anyone put two in a container like that?? I was running short and thought those two would look great together-hope it works out!!
-B