Grow - Winter Sowing Workshop

Sixteen of our members gathered on December 1, 2025 at Howell Branch Library for an evening of Winter Sowing our own native plants.  Charter Member Laurel Major hosted our workshop, with an assist from Maureen Aylward (also a Charter Member!).  

We started the evening watching a video from Homegrown National Park, with Doug Tallamy explaining the importance of growing natives on our own private land.  As with all things Doug Tallamy, it was worth the watch and provided a big picture view of native ecosystems, keystone plants and the benefits of natives over acres of suburban lawn.

Laurel took that big picture view and brought it down to the practical - how to inexpensively begin growing native plants.   She explained her process for Winter Sowing and provided instructions for all to take home.  

Laurel brought a tub of the growing medium she uses for winter sowing - a mix of leaf compost, perlite and coir.  Laurel collected native seeds gathered from her own land in Stafford County - sea oats, sunflowers, asters, blue indigo and sneezeweed to share.

After explaining the process, we all dug in and began planting!  We filled our recycled jugs with Laurel’s potting mix.

Then we selected which seeds to grow.

We sealed up our jugs with duct tape, labeled them and wished them a happy winter stratification period.

We had so much fun that we planned a repeat for next year and a Winter Sowing Party to grow plants for a spring Native Plant Sale to benefit our chapter.  Stay tuned to keep growing with the Central Rappahannock Chapter of the VNPS!

So many thank yous to Laurel for her knowledge and generosity and to Maureen for being an early volunteer to help with this workshop!