Hi Folks, I'm a 5 year big Winter Sowing fan and written a blog post here about it, but will also share some of my latest Winter Sowing lessons learned in 6a, SE Michigan about sowing native plant seeds:
1) Native seeds are wonderful to winter sow, many of them NEED cold stratification. For example, it's a great time to be sowing native plant seeds in the Midwest in the middle zone, 5-7. My Prairie Moon Nursery catalog just arrived, and they have a great list of native plants available to winter sow, especially those that need cold stratification in order to germinate in spring.
2) Pay particular attention to the type of soil and drainage selected native plants for your planting area need. Some need sandy, well drained, low nutrient soil. Others do well in clay, and there's a range of native plants that do well in everything in between. Check out the recommended culture of native plants right here on garden.org, do your research, and also check the Prairie Moon catalog and others like it that specialize in native plants.
3) Native plants build big roots, and small tops, Some may grow slowly for a couple years as they get established.
4) Support your local native plant growers. Ask around and find them. The more we support them, the more choices we will have locally.
5) There are excellent books available about landscaping with native plants. Also see the reason why it is SO important with Douglas Tallamy's books. The one that most encouraged me was "Nature's Best Hope." There are videos and a website about starting your own Homegrown National Park. I've done it with lasagna gardening. You can too, even if it's just pots on a balcony to start.
6) If you want to see my top ten lessons learned about Winter Sowing, here's the blog post I did for Garden. Org with Winter Sowing seed lists and more:
https://garden.org/blogs/entry...
#nativeplants #wintersowingnativeplants
