We came from here:

http://cubits.org/Germination/...

Hope everyone has found us and will continue this great discussion

Every year I say i'm going to cut back... and I have yet to do so. But i try to do the ones that are 'important' to me.

I have to Spirias that do not look well, they are 8 yrs old and last year looked horrible so i chopped them to the ground. did get new growth, but i may yank them -- then i'll have more room to plant.

My jugs and pots:

Thanks for posting your pics, Caroline! I've got the jugs but don't have the big containers. I guess I better hurry and get ready.

You look so nice and organized, Caroline. My jugs just get stashed into any reasonably sized cardboard box I can find. I like your method better!

You're very organized Caroline! Some of my cups are in a bin, some jugs are in a tray and some are just placed nearby on the grass.........

I managed to do one jug
The kid did 1 jug too, so we have two. Apparently there is still time...it is still winter here.

But you are a working gal, Joanne.
I would not have done this while working.
And really there is lots of time here.

My wintersown seedlings look like crap. Constant rain, storms actually, with over twice our normal rainfall for April. I think we're approaching 9" for April, and we still have a week to go in this month. The 7 day forecast is for 7 days of rain. We've hit an all-time record. Last year by this time, I'm pretty sure our drought had started.

My seedlings are all yellow. The Chinese forget-me-nots are the weirdest looking- they're yellow and red, making them look kind of orange. The heuchera jug was all green soil with algae and moss. I scraped off the thickest moss today and drenched with peroxide water. They couldn't have been any wetter anyway, and more severe storms due today. We've already had 2 rounds today. I checked them all and all have big drain holes on sides and bottom. No water comes out if I poke more holes, drainage is as good as it gets.

Incredibly my indoor plants are yellow from being overly dry. I can't just put them out in the rain because it never rains here- it storms. They'd be blown to kingdom come. We seem to have either severe thunderstorm warnings or tornado watches or warnings almost daily. A few days ago we had 80 mph winds. Overnight alone that night the tornado sirens sounded four separate times.

This really is getting ridiculous.

Karen

Wow, Karen--you really are getting the brunt of the storms. We've been tremendously lucky, as most of the storms have tracked either just north or south of us. Let me know if you need anything--so far, my plants are doing well. I"ll be happy to send you anything you need.

Stay safe......

Thank you Linda, you are so sweet! I guess you're getting a little less rain than we are. It usually does look that way on weather maps. I'll actually be able to fill a lot of holes in our garden with coleus, I suspect. If I can just keep them alive for another few weeks....My Rosy Dawn order came a few days ago so now I have some new cultivars to look foreward to.

Good Lord, I have to stop checking the weather. We've topped all records for April rainfall in Cincinnati, and the weather man said we could add another 5" by month's end. We've now almost tripled the norm. You can see our daily/monthly rain on this page
http://www.weather.com/weather...

Happy Easter from soggy Cincinnati.

Karen

My sprouts aren't doing very well this year either, the usual bachelor buttons ect are doing great and survived being frozen solid at one point but for the most part the rest of the seeds have poor germination.....one of this one of that, too much clouds rain and cold. The chard seeds seem to be rotting before they even sprout and I've got their container opened all the way
The Great Blue Lobelia is doing great though, I suspect it loves this soggy damp weather. At least something does, cause I sure as heck dont!

Karen--I have cuttings that I've grown from quite a few Rosy Dawn Coleus, so if you need anything to fill in, let me know. I can easily c-mail you my list of what I have (which is way more than I can plant). Somehow, most of the major storms have just skirted us to either the north or south. Almost seems like we're in a little protected zone here!

My WS jugs are hanging in there. I've had several jugs that haven't sprouted at all, but hard to say what caused that. I'm happy overall with my results. I'm getting ready to start opening some jugs so they can take advantage of the warmer temps.

However, the weeds (especially the purple deadnettle) is overtaking my yard. Unless I can get weeded, I can't get mulched. It's a vicious circle.

Thanks, Linda, but I'm good on coleus. At least as long as I can keep them alive for a few more weeks. I have 2 trays that aren't under lights, they outgrew my light shelves. And Mother Nature sure isn't giving them the sunshine they want. AND my husband and I went to a local greenhouse/nursery a few weeks ago and he bought a little Venus Fly Trap. I made him put it in an unused bedroom to isolate it for a while. I forgot it was there, never looking at it. My husband has been watering it. The stupid thing is infested with fungus gnats! It's supposed to eat bugs but apparently it's not hungry. If they got to my coleus I'll scream. I'm going to soak a few mosquito dunks in a bucket and water my coleus with that just in case the gnats got to them too.

In fact, I'm surprised my wintersown stuff doesn't have gnats. They couldn't possibly be any wetter . I wish I had some of the mosquito bits to sprinkle on them.

Karen

I'm thrilled with the process of wintersowing. This is my first year trying it.

Inside a jug with annual poppies.

Pricked out of the jugs and *bagged* because I sowed too thickly.

This pix is from a couple of weeks ago so they've added quite a bit of top growth now.

As soon as we get a break from the rain I hope to get the cool weather stuff in the ground. That's always the problem with cool weather plants here......too wet to plant out until it gets hot.

I was concerned about mice getting in the tops of my jugs so I left the caps on and made a hole in each of them for excess heat to escape. I think it's helping to keep too much wet out of the jugs.

I'm glad it's worked so well for you Chelle. They look great.

But, I never use the screw on lid on milk jugs. I leave that open for rain and snow to get in, heat to get out. Be careful as the weather warms, it can get hot enough to kill the seedlings.

Karen

Yep, I'm keeping an eye on them for heat stress. I'll likely have them all out of the jugs by the time it gets sunny and warm, however.

Almost all of them are big enough now that they're ready to get out of there.

Most of mine could go out in the garden- if it ever stops raining long enough.

Another issue, with over 11" of rain this month, is that my clay soil is going to be wet forever. Really bad to soil structure to mess with it it this condition.

Karen

I'm *sitting on my hands* regarding planting out. I've seen how poorly plants do when they go out in saturated soil.

The folks are after me to get the potatoes planted, but I haven't even touched the veggie garden yet....other than to start some early stuff in paper pockets.

Snow peas, spinach, lettuces, asparagus peas, kohlrabi, red cabbage and pak choi are doing well in paper, at least so far.

Chelle-- I love that paper bag idea. Do you just plant the entire bag? I love all of the new ideas I learn here.