"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away?"

Author: Unknown

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Wintersowing for 2011

   It is such a warm beautiful day outside today ( a warm 65°) , I decided to get started on a little wintersowing. I am much later than last yr. But this yr I have no intentions of sowing over 200 containers either. I want to see how things filled out from last year. With perennials they frequently dont show their true glory until yr 2 or 3. Mostly what I sowed today are the fantastic seeds sent to me from Renee's Garden about a month ago (see link in side bar). I participated in a group grow last yr sponsored by her.It was a lot of fun. I got about 15 containers sowed this afternoon. It didnt take long as I saved a few bags of last year's containers. So I didnt have all the cutting to do.
   I also sowed some more rose seeds I had saved. last yr I got two wonderful rose bushes this way. I expected some weird looking thing with flowers no where near the parent, but I got a wonderful surprise when they bloomed. What a cheap,easy way to make more roses.
  Traditionally, winter sowing is started on Winter Solstice. But I avoid the cold weather as much as possible. This is such an easy method to start seeds. Mother Nature takes care of most of the gardener's duties. Give it a try and drop a line to let me know how it did.

6 comments:

  1. Oh! i think that was such a hot day....and i agree with you that,this is a cheap way to make fresh roses!! thanks for the posting.

    Minnesota Landscape

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  2. Best wishes with your winter sowing. I can't wait to see what you grow this year. :)

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  3. I'm sure you'll have great success! It was so hot this week, that I didn't start winter sowing as planned. Now, I'm thinking of direct sowing again. Can't predict our weather!

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  4. This is my 2nd year wintersowing, but 1st year using milk jugs. I have high hopes for the jugs, but so far the open pots sown in January were the 1st to sprout. Would love the purple coneflower to germinate this year.

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  5. My coneflower did very well last yr in jugs.I sowed a bunch in an old kitty litter jug. The only problem with open pots is that they may dry out a little quicker, so you may need to watch them a little more.

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  6. Great information, looks like something we should implement in our landscapes.
    Thanks for the info and posting!

    http://www.groundonemn.com/

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