New to this site, but love what you are doing! I work in the school system as well as an aide. I can offer hibiscus seeds. Let me know where to ship! Can't afford-but a great seed for kids-moonflower-I planted them for the first time this year in a mini-greenhouse and they germinated in a week! They are about 3" tall and pushed the lid off my little greenhouse! Quick growing and would give the kids the reason to keep going!

I'm not sure who packaged your seeds, but I don't think you will have successful germination with just 21 days moist chill followed by warmer temps.....that doesn't come close to my experience with helleborus over several years, several seed sources, including my own seeds. Were your seeds sent to you moist packed, where they may have already been given a moist warm period - that would explain skipping that step. Two good germination databases: Druse - moist warm 56-70 days, followed by moist cold 56-70 days followed by bring to 60 - 65F for germination in additional 30-545 days. Clothiers - Helleborus orientalis, Pour hot water over seeds, let soak 1-3 days until swelling noticeable. Sow at 71ºF for 6 weeks or more. Move to 24-39ºF for 6-8 weeks (my own note - use refrigerator, not your freezer for this if not sowing outdoors). Then raise the temperature to 50ºF. If no germination in 4-6 weeks, repeat the cycle from the beginning. If the warm/cold cycles were not long enough, a new warm/cold cycle is needed. short viable seeds

Hmm, no weed seeds. Hesperis matronalis, aka Dame's Rocket, a lovely garden plant in this area, a noxious weed in PNW. Purple loosestrife - should be forbidden out here, but elsewhere folks love it. I can't imagine being banned from participating in future swaps. What would be the criteria for weed seeds? Even dandelions (which I would never send to someone who did not specifically request them) are herbs to some.

It just helps in getting a higher germination rate, which is critical for the nursery grower. For the home gardener it simply means over-plant your seed flats if you don't have liquid smoke or some other stimulant. GA3 can help with CA native sages too and so can 3% peroxide for an hour, or immersion in 200 degree F water and allowed to sit overnight before planting in flats or in situ. This last method is the one that's allowed me to best germinate open-pollinated S. mellifera, S. apiana, S. clevelandii and S. spathacea. I boil the water and then let I it cool to that temp. The seed coat while get gelatinous and make the seeds sticky for handling, so I use toothpicks or popsickle sticks to handle them. I'm not familiar with your climate, but in CA we would typically germinate in Sept/Oct or in early spring. Rooting cuttings in spring is about as easy as growing from seed, I find. If you are going to just wintersow, I'd say no treatment is necessary, but you better have a lot of seed to toss out. Anything you start now will likely struggle through the winter unless you have a greenhouse or growing set-up with heat and w/o too much humidity. You would really have to baby them until it's warm enough for you to plant out. Of the sages native here... Salvia apiana Salvia brandegeei Salvia carduacea Salvia clevelandii Salvia columbariae Salvia dorrii Salvia eremostachya Salvia funerea Salvia greatae Brandegee Salvia leucophylla Salvia mellifera Salvia mohavensis Salvia munzii Salvia pachyphylla Salvia sonomensis Salvia spathacea Salvia vaseyi Salvia verbenacea I'd say vaseyi, eremostachya, pachyphylla, mohavensis, and funerea probably won't grow for you and the rest of them will die if allowed to sit in water and get any sort of rot. Planting on a slope will help with that.