Baci, I guess so, as the article says. I live in San Jose, far from the high desert, but have become a fan of desert flowers since visiting Anza-Borrego in spring. Be careful whenever you purchase commercial wildflower mixes: they don't always contain California native wildflowers. Lovely as non-native flowers are, they are not threatened or endangered like many of our native wildflowers, which are being lost to construction, development, and sod at a rapid rate. It gives me great satisfaction to plant native plants, which likely grew on the site not too long ago and were part of an ecosystem that lasted thousands of years until we started tinkering with it on a massive scale. So I only buy wildflower seeds from organizations that have strong native plant knowledge and credentials. All species mentioned in the article above are indeed California native and highly suited for California high desert landscapes.

Yes Coach, this is a very interesting topic. It has always been my understanding that dormancy, as Ken alluded too, is brought on by a shortening of daylight hours and dropping of temperatures. Different flora would have different cycles according to there specific climate. This I'm guessing would be genetically marked in that species code. Of course they can be 'tricked' into prolonging there growing season or exiting dormancy early. It is done all the time. Now it is also my understanding that this can only be done for a certain period of time before a plant would shut down regardless of artificially produced factors. The Prolonged growing season would definitely stress the plant. So your quest is to prolong the growing season without injuring your conifers. Conifers also require a certain amount of days dormancy before they are able to come out of dormancy. You would want this to happen in the following spring. Required dormancy for conifer species is probably documented somewhere. I'm sure you can stretch the season a month or two without any problems. Someone with more knowledge could probably pin it down to a more specific timeframe for you. Good luck

Thank-you all for your replies! Dandy, I spent half of last yr "winter sowing"! I cut up milk bottles, decanted soil, etc etc. I grew Asclepias sp, columbine, button bushes, spicebushes, magnolias, Monarda sp. etc etc problem is I lost most of the seedlings to drought, strong, fast growing weeds and grass and slugs! I cannot bring myself to use more chemicals. I used some on the bittersweet vines and I feel bad about that. I know that in my case, chemicals are not going to work. I really haven't got the equipment or time to battle the meadow/hay/weed grass so I thought I'd identify the strong, maybe slightly invasive natives that will survive! I'd love to have a mix of native Asclepias but if I can get a few A. tuberosa and/or syriaca to take root in different spots I'll be happy! I will of course take the seed route again 'cause I can't afford plants...just wishful thinking. Maybe I'll try some coneflowers and hyssop....how bad are the sunflowers?

1. When you say "truckload of soil" I assume you mean ordinary soil which would be a very bad idea, it would become compacted and won't drain well. The roots would drown for lack of oxygen. You need to use an appropriate well draining 'non soil' organic potting mix. This rule is part of the ABC's of basic seed sowing in containers. 2. "Months watering" sounds like you intend to keep seedlings in trays a very long time, later you mention leaving them in there for an entire year and even worse, counting on them surviving summer in trays. This is also very bad. Trays might serve in a pinch to germinate seeds but certainly not for growing them on, crowded together in such shallow soil as a seed tray would provide. What you want is good root growth and trays would not provide this, that is not what a seed tray is designed for. It is meant for holding pots or cells. 3. Scaling back on water to keep plant growth in check to control size doesn't even make sense. 4. Growing seedlings in a container that has no drainage holes is simply not done. That would result in a stagnant mess, damping off, drowning plants etc. This is a sure way to kill plants even if they are water loving plants. I suggest you get online or find a book on basic seed sowing methods. It appears you are over analyzing and making things difficult along with a lack of understanding of how to sow seeds. Seeds have simple basic needs for good success and your proposal doesn't sound practical or promising at all. Check the seed sowing forum or even the winter sowing forum. Either place will give you better ideas than what you have proposed above.