Fairy, fresh last Fall isn't fresh, it's stored. Baptisia sown immediately after harvesting will sprout right away - if the seed has been stored it's much slower and some kind of means to breach the rock hard seed coat is necessary. Some will nick each seed, but Tony Avent, others (Clothier) will suggest a boiling water drench. "Fresh sown baptisia seed germinates quite easy and quite fast...usually in two weeks. Older stored seed, on the other hand is very difficult and slow to sprout. I recommend that all old baptisia seed be placed in a Styrofoam cup and doused in boiling water and allowed to cool prior to planting. This will begin to break down the seed coat and encourage germination. We have even tried this on seed that was sown but showed sporadic germination. Un-germinated seed were sifted from the potting mix, drenched with boiling water, and resown, with amazing results. " Avent

Thank you for your reply. Do you think it would be ok to plant/sow them in a pot or does this need to be in the ground please? ==>>> you have enough seed.. to try a variety of methods ... and i suggest you do so ... when i have no learning curve ... i do .. say.. 10 seeds every way ... and one of the methods usually works.. based on my level of incompetence ... lol .. when you rely on one methods.... one thing wrong.. total fail ... been there.. done that ... so spread the odds ... i bet in ground ... is the easiest.. most forgiving method.. pots in winter.. can be very problematic .. for the newb ..but maybe not.. in your area .... ken

hi you remove flowers immediately after the flowers fade .. so they will rebloom THE SAME YEAR .... it has nothing to do with next year ... like peeps.. a plant has ONLY ONE goal in life.. procreation.. furthering of the gene pool.. they all make seed ... the issue is which seed will winter over in your zone .. not many do in z5 ... as the native range of many of our perennials are much further south ... vermin.. birds.. etc ... one of the biggest nightmare seeders in my garden was a mallow.. no clue which one.. by the third year.. i had about a billion of them.. and 5 years after killing them all.. i am still getting seedlings .. daylily .. not only makes seed .. but multiplies by rhizome dividing... the rhizomes are the same flower .. seeds.. with genes and dna and all.. are useless.. in regard to the flower you have... they are snapped off as soon as the flowers fade.. unless you want to play with seed .. we would rather have the energy spent on divisions grown underground.. rather than the seed good luck ken

I've never had a problem using year old seed. Can't speak how much longer they last after that but I can let you know next spring. ;-)