Wintersowing Flowers

Here's a photo of our 12x60 foot flower bed that runs parallel to the driveway.  All of the plants were grown from seed.  The perennials, in particular, were started in 2009 using a method called wintersowing.  I grew hundreds of seedlings that year and it was a great way to inexpensively get a large garden up and running.  It literally cost pennies to throw seeds into recycled containers prepped with drainage and venting holes, moistened potting soil and a hinged opening.  An online seed swap club provided me with free flower seeds as a wintersowing "newbie."  I had never grown flowers before and, needless to say, the learning curve was steep.  But over the past five years, I have rearranged the plants in the bed to better balance height and color, replaced the ones I didn't particularly like and added new plants in the bare spots. The photos below show the setup on our back deck in January and the results in April:

Bring on the snow and freezing weather!  It doesn't bother them a bit!

Mother nature at her best!

The last few years I've also enjoyed starting flower seeds indoors under growlights and then moving them into the hoophouse in the spring. The seedlings not needed in the perennial bed are planted in window boxes, large containers and in and amongst my vegetable garden.

Impatiens and lobelia enjoying the warmth of the hoophouse.

Today I organized my seeds and filled pots and trays with seed starting mix.  I did, however, sow one container with flower seeds:

Pansy (Swiss Giant Mix, Viola wittrocklana): Planted approximately 60 pelletized seeds in one 4"x8" container 1/4" deep. This is the second sowing. See February 3rd post for full description.

Postscript #1 - More than twenty-five Sweet William seedlings (Dianthus barbatus) have germinated in only five days.  I am particularly pleased for two reasons: first, I harvested these seeds myself from last year's flowers and also because the earliest expected germination time is usually 14 days.

I'm tickled these seeds were viable!  I hope to expand my Sweet William bed!