I sow an Autumn and a late Winter sowing, but the Autumn sowing go in a cold g/h until Spring.
Thanks very much for this. Frances
You are not alone. I am experimenting this year with sowing some onion seeds, which I did yesterday. I am going to wait and see how they do and will sow some more on New Year's Day, my usual sowing date. The important thing is not to be too disappointed if your seeds sown now fail. Just try again. I know onions are not flowers but the care needed to get germination is similar. I am keeping mine in an unheated, double-glazed conservatory. I put clear plastic fruit trays over them to make tiny greenhouses rather than putting them into plastic bags as I have found bags tend to make seedlings rot off. Good luck and continue trying new things.
Thank you Joyce.. You have been very kind sharing your advice and experiences. Do the propagator units , unheated , also cause the roots to rot in your opinion?
This is a great time for sowing. I do pretty much all mine apart from tender perennials (grown as annuals), which I do in spring. Spring sowing is OK for annuals but all my hardy perennials need some stratification, so an autumn sowing gives them a chance to get going as soon as temperatures rise in spring. The only month I don't sow seeds is August. Autumn sown hardy annuals such as larkspur, sweet peas, centaureas are astonishing - much bigger, sturdier plants...although I am in East Anglia, not Scotland. I sow sweetpeas now for a May blooming, and another coupla lots in March and May so I have some all summer into Autumn.
I have never used a propagator, perhaps others can help with that question. The main thing with growing from seed is the balance between keeping seedlings moist enough and not overdoing it, which creates mould and rotting off.
I sow sweetpeas now for a May blooming, and another coupla lots in March and May so I have some all summer into Autumn.
This is the problem though. It's not about what stage seedlings/plants are at just now. It's what spring is like. As I keep explaining - sweet peas [and most annuals] don't start growing well until later May here, so there's very little benefit in sowing in autumn. They just sit there doing very little, and the March/April sown ones catch up.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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, unheated , also cause the roots to rot in your opinion?
Autumn sown hardy annuals such as larkspur, sweet peas, centaureas are astonishing - much bigger, sturdier plants...although I am in East Anglia, not Scotland. I sow sweetpeas now for a May blooming, and another coupla lots in March and May so I have some all summer into Autumn.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...