Winter Sowing Roses from Seeds in Zone 6/7

Write this down as another first time gardening seed starting attempt thing! Even after growing my cut flower garden all these years, believe it or not, there are still things that I have never tried to grow before. One such flower that I've never tried to grow from seed are roses. You see rose seeds…

Winter Sowing Scabiosa Pincushion Flower in Zone 6/7

Scabiosa, also known as pincushion flower, look absolutely darling. Seriously, these flowers are so cute. When I first started growing them in the cut flower garden, they quickly became one of my absolute favorite flowers. The good news is, they are also very easy to grow. Whether winter sowing scabiosa or direct sowing, becoming successful…

Winter Sowing Lavatera Flowers in Zone 6/7 Cut Flower Garden

Sometimes known as garden mallow, lavatera flowers bloom on compact plants. These flowers closely resemble that of hollyhocks, but come in a much more narrow range of colors. Winter sowing lavatera is ridiculously easy, and will definitely yield some wonderful results if grown in the right climate. The level of cold tolerance of lavatera plants…

Winter Sowing Annual Phlox Flowers in Zone 6/7

Growing annual phlox can be frustrating. I get questions about their germination on a pretty frequent basis, and I often feel bad that I can't offer more exact information about the process. Like many other flowers, I didn't start trying to grow phlox until after I had started using the winter sowing method. Using containers,…

Winter Sowing Echinacea in Zone 6/7

Winter sowing echinacea seeds has proved to be a great way to ensure success in my yard. While I've never attempted to grow echinacea from seed using methods other than winter sowing, I can confidently say that it works! It makes sense that winter sowing echinacea would be a great way to get a head…

Winter Sowing Lavender Seeds in Zone 6/7

Lavender can be one of the most frustrating plants that I grow from seed. All over the internet, you'll see tales of growers who dream of rows of fragrance lavender, but have failed to get it to germinate. Fortunately for me, I had already discovered the winter sowing method when I first tried to grow…

Blanket Flower Seeds

Winter Sowing Blanket Flower (Gaillardia) in Zone 6b/7

Winter sowing blanket flower, also known as gaillardia, is a really great way to use perennial flowers to build cut flower gardens and landscape plantings. While going to the local garden center and buying perennials is super easy, it can also be ridiculously expensive. Luckily, for those of us whose mommy and daddy don't own…

Milkweed Seeds

Winter Sowing Milkweed in Zone 6b/7

Even though I focus a lot on growing cut flowers, every so often, it's nice to focus on pollinators. While I've heard that some people grow milkweed for use in cut flowers, I personally don't. The actual milkweed plant contains some pretty toxic sap which can cause all kinds of complications if it comes in…

February Unheated Hoophouse and Garden Update – Flowers in Hoop House

In my last post, I mentioned that the weather here has been absolutely frigid. Well, a couple days have passed and in true crazy weather fashion, our temperatures are now into the 60s. I should mention that that is very warm for this time of year, as our last frost date is usually at the…

Bracing for an Arctic Blast in the Home Garden – Cut Flower Farm and Vegetable Garden / Winter Flowers

Over the past week or so, we've been getting absolutely blasted with cold weather and freezing temperatures. Up until now, our winter weather had been relatively mild; something which is very common here in my zone 6b/7 garden. That all changed about two weeks ago, however, when the snow began to fall and the nightly…