Hunks O'Seedlings

Halfway through trying to clean up the leaves and debris from the winter, I gave up and picked out which wintersown containers would get "planted out". Wintersown.org is THE place to start if you're wondering what all this is about. It's basically sowing your seeds in the dead of winter. You use containers (like milk jugs or soda bottles) as mini greenhouses. The seeds germinate early because the soil is warmer inside the container than outside in the garden.

Long story short, too late. I picked out several containers. The lasagna pans contained diathus pinks maiden and trailing carnations. In the two-liter soda bottles were sea holly, cupid's dart(2), hollyhocks(2), scabiosa(3), dianthus 'Sweet William', and lamb's ear.



Only seedlings that has their first set of TRUE leaves were eligible for planting out. There are nearly 80 containers with sprouts in them. The idea is that since these seedlings have survived much colder temperatures than anything expected between now and spring, they'll be just fine out in the garden. I have my doubts, but the people at GardenWeb assure me they will be fine.

So off I went into the perennial garden. Around the edges of the rocks, I planted dianthus and trailing carnations. The scabiosa isn't a pretty plant, so I placed it further back in the bed. I planted the white ones in the moon garden. The hollyhocks were scattered throughout. 5 clumps of at least 3 hunks of cupid's dart were scattered around as well.

I use an old spoon to scoop out a "hunk" of seedlings. Then I use my fingers to dig into the soft dirt. I make a hole about the same size as the hunk, plop it in place, and sort of spread the dirt around to make contact on all sides. That's it.

Cupid's dart


Hollyhocks


dianthus


scabiosa


Now all I need to do is water them tomorrow with half strength liquid fertilizer and wait for the blooms. Some of these plants could take a couple years to bloom. Hopefully, the cupid's dart will show me a few flowers this year. And I really hope they make it through the next few weeks of "winter" here in NC.

I also transplanted some black eyed Susans, shasta daisies, and coreopsis 'Early Sunrise' from the hoophouse containers in to the perennial bed. The remaining shastas will be planted in the moon garden tomorrow.

It's 64 degrees and sunny. Strong wind gusts all day.