I've been saving up my tea jugs all year, and this will be my second season sowing seeds in winter. It's so much fun to open the jugs in the spring to find plants ready to go in the garden!
I have quite a few seed packets left over from spring that I purchased in the spring. I failed to read the packages until I got home. Got caught up with the pretty flowers on the packages. Many are those you mentioned and I am not sure where they got put because they sat on the counter for a couple months and I think my husband put them away…now if he remembers where…that will be a bonus 😂
Yes, once these flowers get started they will happily reseed on their own. It’s best to have open ground around them so they can land on dirt and not heavily weed filled areas. I was just observing yesterday snowbirds eating liatris seeds. That is one reason I don’t clean the flower beds in fall and the other is the vegetation provides winter protection for the plants and wildlife. This morning I noticed they picked the stems clean already. It is also another flower to winter sow. Had huge success with winter sown Amish Cockscomb this last year. Because we had 2 years that our winters were extremely warm I had to change how I winter sow in Z5a, WI. I start the seeds later like late February to early March and place the jugs on the east side of the house. Once I know the temps have stabilized where we no longer are getting freak cold spells I move them to south side of the greenhouse/building. What was happening in those warm winters is we had rain and 52F and then some single digit temps mixed in. The seeds were germinating too soon in their artificial environment and some rotted because if they were in full sun the containers weren’t staying frozen. I’m happy to say I had complete success-even canna seeds germinated 🙌🏼. This year (Winter Solstice) we have snow right now and swinging between -11 with a real feel of -17F 🥶 to next weekend back to 40s 😮! Just when you think our winter will actually be Winter. Then generally we get a cold snap mid January to February and snow. This weather can continue just when you want it to be spring and makes winter drawn out. Those extreme temperature fluctuations are what killed many winter sow projects. One January it was pouring rain 🌧️ 😮-unheard of! The cold snap was brief that January to February with more warmth and that did those seeds in as I had them in full sun and on some days they were cooking-then SNAP-Frozen. So I looked back at my garden journal and found this extreme change happened in February. Another failure could be using different containers with separate pots inside a tote as the volume soil and hot air can upset the balance of the environment needed. Many seedlings either germinate too soon or dry out. Hope that helps some understand why winter sow wasn’t successful. The weather is making gardening tricky. We have a beautiful hoar frost going on right now on this beautiful sunny Winter Solstice Day! I’m enjoying ACTUAL winter even if it might be short lived ❄️☃️❄️ Merry Christmas 🎄, Happy New Year 🎉
I’m in zone 8a GA. My snapdragons I planted (not from seed) grew and flowered all year round for 6-7 years (strange, but I guess it was a happy location and planted at the optimal time). I was so surprised bc the can said annual. I was a newbie at the time and it was so surprising. They remained until I got annoyed with the same ole snapdragons and finally yanked them out in Spring when I decided to widen and redesign the front garden bed. I however in fall planted new snapdragons in the back, apparently I thought I was over snapdragons. That was a lie 😂. I want to plant milkweed for Monarchs, but research of multiple varieties, says it’s invasive as heck and so I’m staying away, sadly. I have all these seeds I purchased this Fall and it’ll be my first time using seeds, so I’ve been hesitant on getting started bc I just want to direct sow all of them, but the heck with it. It’s all a learning experience. If I fail I’ll just adjust and try again. Thanks for the videos.
You are most welcome. There are 4 milkweeds that are native to Georgia, Whorled Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, Butterfly Milkweed and Smoothseed Milkweed. Check out a local nursery that specializes in native plants and they may have some available this spring/summer. Anything with the word "weed" in the name can be a bully but not invasive. To keep it in check, just don't let it go to seed. Also Botanical Interests carries the seeds for the Butterfly Milkweed. Yes, there is no fail, it is all learning. Have fun growing from seed this year!
The orange Butterfly Milkweed has made itself at home after a few years in my garden. It has a long taproot, but those down covered seeds do like to travel 😂. The native milkweed pops up here and there. They aren’t too much of a problem. Dairy farmers don’t like them as it’s not good for cows.
@@FlowerPatchFarmhousethank you. They had two different Botanical Interests packs of milkweed at Pikes one of them was invasive. One of the two were butterfly milkweed like you listed but I hate red, yellow and orange flowers in my garden. So I put them back. I’ve noticed that one location would have more seed varieties than others and many would be sold out. So I’ll keep checking for the whorled and swamp varieties that you listed. I prefer white or pink flowers. Thank you again.
I winter sow in 1 gallon nursery pots tucked under a mini greenhouse. There is lots of room for roots. I do have to water but we’re pretty arid so I would anyway. Looking forward to starting after the holidays!
I live in Northern Lower Michigan. I love this type of video. I am ready to get going for 2025 and winter sowing is fun. Do you heat your green house? Thank you
No, I don't heat my greenhouse and, it is a glorified cold frame, it gets pretty cold inside. I do have a little personal heater when I am working in it during very cold days but that is it. Everything in it must be able to endure the cold.
@@FlowerPatchFarmhouseI was wondering the same thing. It’s way too cold here as we are having normal winter in WI for a few days of below zero temps. I’m fretting about the stuff in the above ground root cellar as we didn’t cap the vents and it’s just above freezing. We have a moisture problem and added another vent lower, but think it may cool it down too much. It’s one of our experiments as we have no cool place to store stuff. Will try covering floor with plastic to lower humidity, but right now I may need to add a bit of heat 😅. Always something. Yea, there would be no way anything would survive in an unheated greenhouse here in WI right now. Maybe by the weekend as we hit 40F again 🙄😏.
I appreciate your videos, thank you💚You mentioned snapdragons, which group of snapdragons are you referring to? I just ordered some from group 1, but didn’t realize I could winter sow snapdragons in general. What fun! 😍
All of them do well with winter sowing. The difference in day length and higher temperature tolerance is what differentiates them by number. Group one love it cooler and bloom during shorter days.
I've been saving up my tea jugs all year, and this will be my second season sowing seeds in winter. It's so much fun to open the jugs in the spring to find plants ready to go in the garden!
I’ve been prepping my milk jugs! Can’t wait. This is my 2nd year to Winter Sow. Thanks for the info.
Have fun! I have found milk jugs to be very effective.
I’m going to be trying out using the big salad containers for winter sowing delphinium and some cool temp veggies this year 🙌
Sounds great! Let me know how it goes. I love to hear what worked and what didn't for folks.
Brilliant thank you. A mild and windy winter so far here in Ireland but going to try some of these anyways.
Let me know how it works for you.
Blessings
I have quite a few seed packets left over from spring that I purchased in the spring. I failed to read the packages until I got home. Got caught up with the pretty flowers on the packages. Many are those you mentioned and I am not sure where they got put because they sat on the counter for a couple months and I think my husband put them away…now if he remembers where…that will be a bonus 😂
Yes, once these flowers get started they will happily reseed on their own. It’s best to have open ground around them so they can land on dirt and not heavily weed filled areas.
I was just observing yesterday snowbirds eating liatris seeds. That is one reason I don’t clean the flower beds in fall and the other is the vegetation provides winter protection for the plants and wildlife. This morning I noticed they picked the stems clean already. It is also another flower to winter sow.
Had huge success with winter sown Amish Cockscomb this last year.
Because we had 2 years that our winters were extremely warm I had to change how I winter sow in Z5a, WI. I start the seeds later like late February to early March and place the jugs on the east side of the house. Once I know the temps have stabilized where we no longer are getting freak cold spells I move them to south side of the greenhouse/building.
What was happening in those warm winters is we had rain and 52F and then some single digit temps mixed in. The seeds were germinating too soon in their artificial environment and some rotted because if they were in full sun the containers weren’t staying frozen.
I’m happy to say I had complete success-even canna seeds germinated 🙌🏼. This year (Winter Solstice) we have snow right now and swinging between -11 with a real feel of -17F 🥶 to next weekend back to 40s 😮! Just when you think our winter will actually be Winter. Then generally we get a cold snap mid January to February and snow. This weather can continue just when you want it to be spring and makes winter drawn out. Those extreme temperature fluctuations are what killed many winter sow projects. One January it was pouring rain 🌧️ 😮-unheard of! The cold snap was brief that January to February with more warmth and that did those seeds in as I had them in full sun and on some days they were cooking-then SNAP-Frozen. So I looked back at my garden journal and found this extreme change happened in February.
Another failure could be using different containers with separate pots inside a tote as the volume soil and hot air can upset the balance of the environment needed. Many seedlings either germinate too soon or dry out.
Hope that helps some understand why winter sow wasn’t successful. The weather is making gardening tricky.
We have a beautiful hoar frost going on right now on this beautiful sunny Winter Solstice Day!
I’m enjoying ACTUAL winter even if it might be short lived ❄️☃️❄️
Merry Christmas 🎄, Happy New Year 🎉
Thanks for all the helpful tips and your personal experience.
thanks for the tips. i need to try this. thanks for sharing with us. hope you have a great day!!!
You are very welcome, I hope you have a great planting season!
Great info
I am so glad you found it helpful!
I’m in zone 8a GA. My snapdragons I planted (not from seed) grew and flowered all year round for 6-7 years (strange, but I guess it was a happy location and planted at the optimal time). I was so surprised bc the can said annual. I was a newbie at the time and it was so surprising. They remained until I got annoyed with the same ole snapdragons and finally yanked them out in Spring when I decided to widen and redesign the front garden bed. I however in fall planted new snapdragons in the back, apparently I thought I was over snapdragons. That was a lie 😂.
I want to plant milkweed for Monarchs, but research of multiple varieties, says it’s invasive as heck and so I’m staying away, sadly.
I have all these seeds I purchased this Fall and it’ll be my first time using seeds, so I’ve been hesitant on getting started bc I just want to direct sow all of them, but the heck with it. It’s all a learning experience. If I fail I’ll just adjust and try again. Thanks for the videos.
You are most welcome. There are 4 milkweeds that are native to Georgia, Whorled Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, Butterfly Milkweed and Smoothseed Milkweed. Check out a local nursery that specializes in native plants and they may have some available this spring/summer. Anything with the word "weed" in the name can be a bully but not invasive. To keep it in check, just don't let it go to seed. Also Botanical Interests carries the seeds for the Butterfly Milkweed. Yes, there is no fail, it is all learning. Have fun growing from seed this year!
The orange Butterfly Milkweed has made itself at home after a few years in my garden. It has a long taproot, but those down covered seeds do like to travel 😂. The native milkweed pops up here and there. They aren’t too much of a problem. Dairy farmers don’t like them as it’s not good for cows.
@@FlowerPatchFarmhousethank you. They had two different Botanical Interests packs of milkweed at Pikes one of them was invasive. One of the two were butterfly milkweed like you listed but I hate red, yellow and orange flowers in my garden. So I put them back. I’ve noticed that one location would have more seed varieties than others and many would be sold out. So I’ll keep checking for the whorled and swamp varieties that you listed. I prefer white or pink flowers. Thank you again.
@@EilandMeisje85 I used to not like orange in my garden but for some reason I love it now, who knows why.
I winter sow in 1 gallon nursery pots tucked under a mini greenhouse. There is lots of room for roots. I do have to water but we’re pretty arid so I would anyway. Looking forward to starting after the holidays!
Sounds like a wonderful way to do it, no messing with prepping recycled containers like jugs etc. I like easy!
@@FlowerPatchFarmhousewill have to check out your garden journal! Very generous ❤
I live in Northern Lower Michigan. I love this type of video. I am ready to get going for 2025 and winter sowing is fun. Do you heat your green house? Thank you
No, I don't heat my greenhouse and, it is a glorified cold frame, it gets pretty cold inside. I do have a little personal heater when I am working in it during very cold days but that is it. Everything in it must be able to endure the cold.
@@FlowerPatchFarmhouseI was wondering the same thing. It’s way too cold here as we are having normal winter in WI for a few days of below zero temps. I’m fretting about the stuff in the above ground root cellar as we didn’t cap the vents and it’s just above freezing. We have a moisture problem and added another vent lower, but think it may cool it down too much. It’s one of our experiments as we have no cool place to store stuff. Will try covering floor with plastic to lower humidity, but right now I may need to add a bit of heat 😅. Always something.
Yea, there would be no way anything would survive in an unheated greenhouse here in WI right now. Maybe by the weekend as we hit 40F again 🙄😏.
wow just found you on your blog lot of things to see
Welcome, and Enjoy!
I appreciate your videos, thank you💚You mentioned snapdragons, which group of snapdragons are you referring to? I just ordered some from group 1, but didn’t realize I could winter sow snapdragons in general. What fun! 😍
All of them do well with winter sowing. The difference in day length and higher temperature tolerance is what differentiates them by number. Group one love it cooler and bloom during shorter days.
@ than you!
🌿🌻🌿🌻🌿🌻🌿🌻🌿
Thank you for the lovely sunflowers!
@ I wish I had some sweet peas and delphinium to go with them 🤗