Wahoooo! there's hope for us northerners yet!
I'm seeing some signs of life in my lupine containers too. Not to mention a little green in the gardens too.
Ahhhh spring is finally here.

Such a wonderful, rewarding winter sport! Have green in jugs of snaps, alyssum, lobelia, dwarf hollyocks, tarragon and dill. Tulips and daffs up. And oh my nemisis, that dang creeping charlie had an invigorating winter (again). The snaps were from last year's ws, my first stab at it.

Lupine was my first to sprout this year too!
Time to start spring sowing!!

I have sprouts of three kinds of poppies and felicia heterophylla, blue daisy, in my ws containers. Most of the containers are in half day sun.

My news isn't as joyful :(. I sowed about 15 milk jugs and set them on my patio table. We had a strong wind a few weeks ago and blew most off the table mixing the seeds and the start mix. Several even tumble long enough to be emptied of the mix -just empty milk jugs laying dead by the fence 60' away!
Next year I will band them or put them in shallow boxes.
Peggy

My WS didn't end up well either. We sowed in galvanized buckets that I collected from rummage sales all last summer. We covered them with heavy plastic and set them on our front sidewalk next to the humongous pile of snow in front of our house (they close the sidewalks down here in the winter). Then we pulled snow off the snow pile to kind bury them since we were late getting started and didn't want them to get too warm yet. Well... what we didn't know was that the city comes down the main streets and scoops up the snow from those big snow piles and takes it out someplace in the country to dump. I guess they do that some springs anyway, and they did this spring. I got up one morning and the snowpile AND all of my WS galvanized buckets were GONE! What a disappointment!!! Once all the snow is gone, we'll take the 4-wheelers out and look at where they dump to see if the buckets are still there (and usable) or not. And we learned a lesson about next year. But for this year, WS is a bust :-(

Sorry to hear of your ws mishaps peggy hosta and jel48. I am fortunate to have a 3 sided sheltered patio where I place my ws containers directly on the cement. I have heard of too many containers blowing off tables so have resisted the temptation of putting them on my large outside table. You may still have some germination if you saved any of your containers. Others have taken their mixed up soil/seeds and sprinkled it lightly in an open area and found some germination later.

Jel48, I do apologize but I found your disaster quite amusing. I'm sure it is not amusing to you today but maybe in the future you will laugh as you tell the story to others. Hope you find the buckets.

I have 45 containers with sprouts and find a few more each day.

I have some questions on winter sowing. Okay, I cut the milk jugs in half, put in an inch or two of damp seed starter mix and then sprinkle my seeds on top. I then taped the cut jug back together and set them outside (east side) without the covers on. Okay so far? I added water probably in early April and now they are dry again. Do I continue to water them? Actually by now, I'll just put the seeds and mix outside in the soil.
Peggy

Peggy, 3 inches of mix is recommend to keep mix from drying out so quickly. Watering is needed to keep the mix moist to germinate the seeds. This spring I have only had to water a few of my containers. Those sitting in direct sun dry out sooner.

When I direct sow I don't use mix, just scratch the soil and sow the seeds. Mix dries out quicker than regular garden soil and will need to be watered more often.

Most of my annuals are spring sown and will be done this weekend. I like using the containers as there is less watering than in an open pot or in the ground and I can control where the seedlings end up, not have them washed around by heavy spring rain or eaten up by all the birds.

I also set up a hoop house, not quite sure how I will use it. Think I will sow annuals in open containers and put them in the hoop house for quicker germination and growth, sort of a giant ws container.

Today I planted out all my ws poppies. Thought it was to be showery and cloudy but it has turned into a windy sunny day. If it doesn't rain later I will probably have to water again this evening. We barely got enough rain this morning to dampen the grass.