Oh...pansies. My favorite annual of them all! Linnea 56, keep in mind that I garden in two zones south of you, but I think I might be able to help you with your question. Here in the deep south, we plant pansies in late October to mid November, just as soon as the temperatures fall into the low eighties or high seventies and the nights begin to cool into the sixties or seventies. (Yes, I know...but you ought to be here in JULY!) They bloom faithfully for us through our entire fall and winter (where the temps rarely go below 20 and if they do, it's for only two or three days. Then it pops back up into the forties or seventies :). They really kick into high gear in the spring (February/March) and bloom their little heads off until the temps begin to climb back into the eighties (nearly always by late April, sometimes sooner). Now, if I were you, I wouldn't pay much attention to the dates I gave you, but I would think about the temperature ranges. I lived in Indiana many years ago, and lots of summers, it didn't get consistently hot (relative to here, that is) until mid to late July. The question to ask yourself is how long a period of time will your area have the right temperatures for pansies? I would think you could plant them in the spring, as early, or nearly as early, as you would plant sweet peas. Then, based on how long it will be before the weather gets too hot for them, (hot weather is certain death for pansies) decide how much of an investment that amount of time warrants. For ME, I think pansies are the best investment of annuals I make all year long, since they bloom for nearly six months. For you? You decide. If I am completely off base, maybe some gardeners in your zone will weigh in so I don't help you along to a disaster.

OK, thanks, I think I'll give it a whirl then and WS them. Never have grown them from seed before so I wasn't sure what to do. Kmpsmom, our weather here in Zone 6B tends to be sort of similar to Zone 7, so that's great to know you had success with WS'ing them. We had a cool spring and summer here in PA too because of all that rain. Aliska12000, I think I'll hold a few pansy seeds back too, that's a good idea. Maybe I'll sow them in containers in the spring just to see how those work. Thanks again for your follow up posts! Now I just need to get more seed starting mix...

It seems to vary from species to species, but, since it flowers so infrequently, there's not a good reference list to go by. I've typically heard 3-12 months, and your chances of germination improve if you keep it in the refrigerator. Even if you are able to plant it immediately after collecting it, your germination rate will probably improve by 6 weeks of chilling in the refrigerator.

Hi, Shelf life is dependent on the species, seed collection(making sure seed is completely ripe before harvesting,) and storage(cool, dark, and dry.) Most seeds will have a high percent of germination for a few years(many in the 5 year range)if they were good to begin with. Some seeds can last quite a long time before the seeds begin to degrade in quality. There's a few types of seeds that do not last or must be stored in a specific way to keep viable. Woodland spring ephemerals. Many of these need to be sown immediately or kept moist in a cool environment until ready to sow. Fruit seeds like of apples or pears need to be kept in the fruit and then winter sown. Citrus fruit needs to be sown immediately after removal from the fruit. Some plants are often said to have a shelf life of a year like onion seed, but I've sown seed in the onion family that is a couple years old a few times now and been successful. I'm betting viability drops a lot after the 3rd year. For really long term storage, freezing is an option. A few things must be done to be successful with freezing. First seed must be really dry so leaving out for a few weeks before packaging to freeze is important. Then when removing from the freezer, you need to let the container come to room temperature before opening, or you will kill the seed. Remy