I've kept hips for several years and the seeds still germinated for me. You can try soaking them but it might not help. Rose hips are very hard. I just use a good sharp knife an cut them open. Don't worry about cutting the seeds, they're even harder than the hips! After you get them out of the hip clean them really well to get all the bits of hip material off of them. It's thought that there is some kind of enzyme in the hip material that inhibits germination. I put them in a fine sieve and scrub them against the sides under running water. Again, this won't hurt them. Then you can soak them in some hydrogen peroxide for a few minutes. This will keep some of the mold down. Wrap them in a damp paper towel, seal the towel in a plastic zip bag and put them in your fridge for a few weeks. When you check them don't be worried if there's mold on the towel. It doesn't hurt them and there are some studies they say certain molds aid in germination. If they've germinated you'll be able to tell easily. The little greenish white root will be sticking out of the seed. Carefully get the seed out of the paper towel and put it in seed starting mix. If you have starter trays that works best. If not start it in a cup but make sure it's starter soil not potting soil. I don't pot up to potting soil until they have at least 2 sets of true leaves. Put it under lights if you have them. If not in your sunniest window. Like the others have said it will not be "The Doctor" but it's own new variety and depending on how it was pollinated can look behave totally different. Have fun!

Brian, There are several books on tissue culture that give more details on zygotic embryo culture than the In Vitro Plant Breeding book that I referenced. I mentioned it first because it is introductory, and I happen to have a copy of it. I think "zygotic embryo culture" is the technical term for the subject of your inquiry. Many of the books in this subject area are relatively expensive, so you will benefit from learning to use Amazon's Search Inside! feature. You can find more detail in the book, Introduction to Plant Tissue Culture by M. K. Razdan, in Chapter 11 (beginning on page 128) titled "Zygotic Embryo Culture". Apparently you can't link directly to specific pages within a book. At least, I don't know how to do it. But this link, Search Inside! Introduction to Plant Tissue Culture should get you inside where you can enter the search string "129" in the Search box and press the red Go button to get a list of hits for that string. At the top of the list is hit 1. "on page 129" and clicking on that will link you to page 129, which is the second page in Chapter 11. Just use the left arrow in the margin of page 129 to go to the beginning of Chapter 11 on what would be page 128 if it had a page number, which it doesn't. At $49.50, that book is fairly affordable, but it is temporarily out of stock at Amazon. Another good book, Plant Tissue Culture: Theory and Practice by Bhojwani and Razdan costs $370, so there is motivation to use Amazon's Read Inside on it. Once you get into the Read Inside your target is Chapter 11, titled Zygotic Embryo Culture, beginning on page 297. Entering "297" in the Search box is the quickest way to find a link to that page, because it does have a page number. There are a bunch of good books on tissue culture, and tissue culture techniques can be used to culture embryos that otherwise wouldn't develop into viable seeds. That makes it possible to grow interspecific and even intergeneric hybrids that wouldn't grow without using zygotic embryo culture techniques. You might be interested in the Kitchen Culture Kits, Inc. website. Dr. Carol M. Stiff is the proprietor, and she might be able to put together a kit specifically adapted to your zygotic embryo culture needs. MM

Looks like Yucca or 'false yucca' to me. Jackie

Could this be it? Mexican Hat Coneflower Mexican Hat (also known as upright prairie coneflower, long-headed coneflower, and Mexican Hat Flower) is an interesting native perennial that has unique blooms. The flower has somewhat resemble sombreros (hence the common name!). Mexican Hat (Ratibida columnifera) is part of the prairie coneflower group, and in the aster family.