2025 Collinsia verna - progress reports and sowing information

I've decided to go ahead and do some species specific pages- my plan is to update pages like this with progress reports and what I did with each species for germination.

Collinsia verna is a really unique native plant. It's an annual, but it's lifecycle is not what we are used to with annuals. This one is a winter annual, it germinates in late summer or fall, overwinters to bloom in spring and then dies off after flowering and hopefully setting seed. Most of us are accustomed to the warmer season annuals that sprout when soils warm and then their season ends with fall frosts. 

A beautiful blue and white flowering plant, Collinsia verna is native to portions of the midwest and northeast. Michigan has two native Collinsia species,you can see their native range and that of other Collinsia here:

https://bonap.net/Napa/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Collinsia

I acquired my seeds here: https://hayefield.com/product/collinsia-verna-blue-eyed-mary/

I surface sowed these seeds on December 27th. This was not the correct time of year to sow these. They should have been direct sowed in late June to August, but, I only found this seller in December and decided to try anyways. The soil I used was Master Garden organic premium seed starting soil with coco coir available at Menards. That's such a long name, but, wanted to make sure it was clear. My local Menards only carries that one seed starting soil this time of year, but perhaps other areas have more where it could be confusing. They are approximately 12" below a basic LED strip grow light- room temperature is 62 degrees with no supplementary heat.

On January 11th, I have my first germination. It is just one and not even quite out of the ground fully yet. I will update with how many of the 20 seeds end up emerging. My plan is to keep the pot inside until at least January 27th and then move some outside. Nancy from Hayefield did a similar experiment in 2024 and only kept them inside for a month and had some flower in the spring, though she planted in February and moved them out in March. I'm hoping to have enough germination to try a few different move out dates to see what works best and hopefully guarantee I have at least some seeds to replant next summer. It is tempting to keep most indoors until March simply because temperatures are so much warmer than January or February here in zone 5A Northern Michigan.