Michelle: good for you for wanting to give seeds to your aunt. Can you be a bit more specific? Are you talking annual flower seeds? vegetable seeds? perennials? or...? Also, do you know anything about your aunt's growing conditions? Is it a big lot, a small lot, sunny, shady, dry, moist? Most annuals do very well, limited only by the first frost (which has just occured here in Ottawa, Canada, on October 20) About the only annuals that might be disappointing here would be those that need a very long growing period before blooming. For example, the datura will only bloom here in early September or late August, and sometimes, an early frost will get it almost as soon as it begins blooming. Hope this is helpful.

Thank you for trying to help :)!
I was thinking along the lines of perenials/annuals, no veggies or fruits. Basically I want to send a little mix of different stuff for shade/partshade/sun areas... just mix it up a little so she can pick and choose the things that she has room for in her yard. I know she has some phlox going, cosmos,zinnia, garden daisies, blackeyed susan, and astilbe.

Michelle, please excuse my butting in but I'm in zone 5 and I grow all you have mentioned plus asters, lilies, bleedinghearts, any hosta, ferns, spiderwort, sedums, garden geriums. Right now my mums are just beautiful. We really can grow alot of annuals and perannuals up here in WI. I once even grew a cactus from California out in the yard, I wanted to try it and so I put it in the ground on the South side up close to the house. It grew for two years and got so large I had to dig it out. Hope this helps out a bit.

Lou

Thank you for answering! I'm glad to know she has a wide variety. What kind of Lillies do you do? I have tons of lillies, and how about bearded iris? would that do well in your zone?
THanks,
Michelle

I have Daylillies and Astics and yes how could I have forgotten bearded Iris. I,m sure your aunt would appreciate any or all the flowerseeds you can muster. Goodluck,
Lou

mjkerkau:

The best source of information that I can possibly provide you with is the link to the "PlantFinder" section of the Kemper Center for Home Gardening at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

When I lived in Peoria, IL, my daughter, Heather, and I used visit this wonderful garden quite frequently. Now that I am living in northwestern Michigan, I'm lucky if I am able to enjoy this wonderful garden every few years.

To give you an idea as to what can be found at the link way below, I will give you the specific links to a number of plants that I've recently added or have considered adding to my garden.

One of the plants that I did add to my garden this fall is Phlox paniculata 'Mount Fuji'. I "discovered" it when I went searching for fragrant plants that would attract either butterflies and/or hummingbirds to our garden. Of course, I wanted it to be hardy to zone 5.

Sue and I live in Manistee - on Lake Michigan - which moderates our winter temperatures, etc.

Again, here is the plant Phlox paniculata 'Mount Fuji'

Here's the link:

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=E600

Once you arrive at this link, you should note all of the things that are checked - one of which is the zone. You will also note that this source will enable you to link to various online sources as well.

If you think your aunt might enjoy this plant, you can, of course, email her the link and/or print out the page and send it to her via the mail.

By happenstance, I stopped by to visit one of the local rural garden centers north of us and saw a nice little plant, whose leaves intrigued me greatly. They had a nice reddish - red rose - color to them. I found out the name of the plant and added one of them to my garden. Two or three others will follow.

Again, here's the name of the plant followed by the link.

Geranium sanguineum 'Max Frei'

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=B466

With a little more searching at this site, I also discovered a white flowered version and noted that not only its leaves colorful in the fall as well, but they are fragrant. So I will soon be adding the flower below to my garden.

Again here's the name of the flower followed by the link.

Geranium sanguineum 'Album'

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=C880

One of the plants that I didn't add to my garden was Paeonia lactiflora 'Duchesse de Nemours'

Again, here's the link to Paeonia lactiflora 'Duchesse de Nemours'

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=Q260

Instead, I opted for "Florence Nicholls" and "Moon Over Barrington" which I ordered from A & D Nursery, whose link is listed below.

Florence's photograph is located here.

http://www.adpeonies.com/peonies/florencenicholls.jpg

and Moon's photograph is located here.

http://www.adpeonies.com/peonies/moonobarrington.jpg

Again, the main link below will or should offer an array of information and plant material to choose for your aunt's garden.

Hope this discussion is more than useful.

Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: Missouri Botanical Garden - PlantFinder - Search

Michelle....pardon me for asking...but can you buy seeds that do well in a zone 5 in your Florida locale?

I would think, unless they are ordered, your local supplier would have no call for such seeds and therefore, would not find it economically feasible to stock such seeds.

A seed for Florida growing would not be sound for northern planting; the hardiness of the plant would be jeopardized.

Your locally grown perennials/annuals are explicitly hardy to your zone 9 and 10....definitely not for zone 5.
Unless you were to send them from a northern seed house, chances are you'd be wasting your money and disappointing your Aunt.

Hi Michelle,
My sister lives in Florida and we have been trading seeds from our gardens for 20 years and have had no problems growing them in eithir zone. I'm in zone 5.
Here's a list of what I've WS for the past 2 years, germinated, transplanted and bloomed in my gardens all from seed.
daylily
japanese iris
all cosmos
all margolds
petunias
godetia
morning glory all kinds including japanese
ginger
annual poppy
perennial poppy
hardy hibiscus
non hardy hibiscus
rose of sharon
pansy
balsam impatiens
angel trumpet datura metal
clematis
hardy ice plant cooperi
california poppy
coreopsis
birdseye gilia
blue thimble gilia
columbines all kinds
dianthis both annual, perennial and biannual
new england aster
hardy mums
cupids dart
zinnias of all kinds
hostas
alyssum
lupine
argeratum
perennial and annual babies breath
cleome
nigella
all kinds of herbs
california blue bells
ornamental grasses

I guess you can say that just about anything can be grown and started in zone 5. Sometimes they won't survive as a perennial, so you grow them as an annual. You get the seeds and start new seedlings every year. Send her an assortment of annuals and perennials and let her experiment with the seeds you send. She'll enjoy them especially if she WS the seeds.
Fran

Thanks for your inputs! Esp. you Fran, I'm glad to hear that the seed swapping works for you. Cool. I've got quite an assortment to send her, and she has no idea I'm sending her anything, so it will be a nice surprise!
Michelle

Hi everyone

I am also I zone 5 and I like to grow hardy tropical looking plants, since I miss going to florida.Right now I am growing a musa basjoo(hardy banana tree), Adam's needle(a yucca plant), prickly pear(cactus native to ontario) and getting some hardy palms over here as wellfor the spring time, just to give them an early head start. There is a guy that lives in kanata,ON which is a sub-burb of Ottawa, and he is successfully grow shrub palm trees threw the winter. Here are a couple of website that will help ya out with your searching of hardy zone 5 plants.

http://hometown.aol.com/fitzroya/myhomepage/cooking.html
http://www.polarpalm.net/
http://www.hardiestpalms.com/

happy holidays