A little seedy around here.

This is the weekend it got a little seedy around here. I had started organizing all the seeds I've collected over the past few months from trades or gifts from other bloggers. I also put in my first seed order and bought a few at the nursery. I just couldn't help myself!
The seed order was put in to Select Seeds. I haven't used them before, but had read good things about them. I also liked that a lot of their seeds are Heirloom varieties.
These are what I ordered:
Sweet Pea 'Chatsworth' - "frilly pale lavender flowers"
Tobacco (Nicotiana alata) 'Lime Green' - "Lightly scented green trumpet-shaped flowers"
Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) 'Emperor William' - "Lapis blue single flowers... an heirloom variety referenced in many an early seed list"
Cosmos 'Rose Bonbon' - "a showy new double Cosmos from the Double Click series"
Poppy (Papaver somniferum) 'Imperial Pink' - "Pure pink petals with pale lavender marks near the center of the flower"
Primrose (Primula veris) Cowslip - "fragrant, tiny nodding yellow flowers bloom early in Spring... Listed in an 1827 seed catalog"

Next came the Winter sowing which was first tried last year with great results. I follow the directions on wintersown.org, very easy and fun to do. You can also now follow wintersown.org on Twitter and Facebook. Sweet Pea and the Littlest Gardener helped me with them. This year we put them together outside instead of the kitchen counter, much less messy that way!

We will be putting together more as the Winter progresses, there are some things such as Cosmos that need to be started closer to Spring. Today we had beautiful weather, perfect for getting outside and playing in the dirt.

What we started so far (most of these were from other bloggers or seeds we saved from our own flowers):
Pink swamp Milkweed
Dwarf Morning Glory
Rose Pink Nicotiana
Cleome 'Rose Queen'
Nigella 'African Bride'
Canterbury Bells 'Cup & Saucer Mix'
Veronica 'Lilac Fantasy'
Tall maroon Hollyhocks
Red Salvia
Milkweed
Verbascum

These are Cosmos I started last year with Winter sowing. I've never had them get as gigantic as they did last year.

Larkspur that was started with Winter sowing last year.

The lavender flower in front is the Veronica 'Lilac Fantasy'. I've never tried these from seed before and so this year will be my experiment. If they do well I'll save lots of seeds to share.

Finally while out looking at the seed racks I picked up a few more seed packets:
Sweet Pea 'April in Paris' - "perfect match of intoxicating fragrance, lovely form and captivating color with the most intense perfume of any sweet pea I've ever grown... large ruffled blossoms are a soft primrose cream, tinted at the edges in dark lilac that deepens and increases with age."
Sweet Pea 'Heirloom Cupid' - "short vines grow 8 to 10 inches tall"
Amaranthus / Love -Lies-Bleeding - "brilliant red seed heads dangle from the tops of bold plants... 3 - 5 feet tall"

Where all these will go is a good question, because in addition to these I still have many more seeds that can't be sown for awhile, not to mention I know I will see more I "need" at the nursery. It was so fun getting ready for Spring by starting some seeds.

Snowy day in March, perfect for winter sowing.

Another day of snow, in March, in the Seattle area. I guess that makes it a perfect day for winter sowing.

I thought I'd start some more seeds yesterday. I'm still learning a lot about it and having a fun time watching what grows outside in my lasagna pans.

The seeds I started yesterday were:

Cosmos 'Sensation Mix', I usually direct sow them, but saw them on the WinterSown.Org list and thought I'd try.

Nicotiana x sanderae 'Sensation Blend' I saved some seeds to try indoors as well.

Lobelia erinus 'Cambridge Blue' They have a very long germination time, 8 to 10 weeks.

The fact that I'll only be out about $6 if the seeds don't germinate makes it worth trying for me.

Here is something I was very happy to see, both of my winter sown larkspurs finally sprouted. I started these January 29th, and on March 8th I finally saw these little green seedlings. I had almost given up on seeing any. Thanks to the many garden bloggers who encouraged me to wait a little longer, I didn't dump them out like I had planned to do.

The larkspurs are 'Shades of Blue' and 'Sydney Blue Picotee'.

About a week and a half ago I also started nicotiana sylvestris 'Indian Peace Pipe'. If I have good success this time I'm going to try a lot more next year.

Now I hope it isn't too cold for the seeds I just planted. Here they are this morning.

As I write this post it's snowing again. The weather report says the high today will be 38 and the low in the 20's. I guess winter is not ready to give in to spring yet.