The cold has to be moist cold to be helpful in breaking dormancy....dry in a jar is only storage. What is it you want to sow that you feel needs the longer cold treatment?

Yes let us know what seed it is and morz is right.

Cimicifuga. Others have told me they had to wait a year for it to germinate and I'm hesitant to put them out if they will have to stay out there that long. I'm afraid I will forget them over the summer and lose them. [g] I'm debating whether I'd have more luck to wait and collect next fall and plant them out right away or just winter sow the seed I have now. I suppose I might as well winter sow what I have now and if I lose them, do it again next fall. I just wondered if being in the refrigerator would have made it more likely they would germinate this spring.

And a viola odorata, which had these instructions for the seed:

"Place seeds with a small amount of moist growing media inside a zip-lock bag and keep at 70° F. for 2 weeks. Then place in the refrigerator for an additional 4 weeks. Remove and sow in cell packs or flats and keep at 41-54° F. until germination occurs."

So I'm not sure how this will work out with winter sowing it now. I'm thinking of using the refrigerator and following the directions, but it would be so much easier to just winter sow them. These instructions are a little different for this particular viola.

I'm not even sure sowing it earlier in winter would have helped. Clothiers says something like 6 weeks warm moist followed by 6-8 weeks cold moist. Druse says sow fresh seed (making that sowing in late summer or Fall when ripe, there's the warm moist period) and it still may take a year even then.

If you've got seeds now, you've nothing to lose by trying - that seed isn't getting any fresher ;). The suggestions are conditions that are known to have produced seedlings, those databases don't necessarily mean they are the only way you can get seedlings. Sow in something sturdy since the pots may be with you a while. Do you have chick grit, or even parakeet gravel, fine aquarium gravel (often available at pet stores by the pound and cheap)...might not hurt to put a light layer on the pots top to help with liverworts or mosses on those pots that may be intact several months.

I don't have as many at this house but still a few....pots growing plants. When I would have a seed pot I wanted to keep several months, I would tuck it in at the base of pots with outdoor plants in them and that way I wouldn't forget to water it occasionally over summer. Another place the topping of grit or fine gravel comes in, you aren't dislodging the seed watering, the grit prevents the seed from moving around if you wet with a hose nozzle or sprinkling can.

The only cimicifuga I brought with me is C. Brunette and I haven't sown it, I don't know that the foliage color would come true from seed. Love the fragrance but it blooms very late for me here. And has never given me any volunteers/seedlings.

Thanks Morz8, I agree that I have the seed, I may as well sow them now. So you would winter sow them, rather than keeping them indoors and giving them the warm treatment and the cold treatment in the fridge?

I have quart milk jugs that I've been using, with a flap cut out of the side and not the top cut through. Those are pretty good at surviving a long time in the yard. I don't have any fine gravel, but I do have vermiculite that I could add to the top. Do you mean cover the seed with that instead of potting soil?

Great idea to put the cimicifuga container at the base of outdoor containers that have plants that need watering. That's a sure way of not forgetting to water them. So the container doesn't need to be in a shady location?

I never get volunteers from mine either, surprising that you don't there in zone 8.

Any thoughts on the viola?

Our climates are so different, but I wouldn't have a pot covered in summer into fall where it could heat up to less friendly seed temps while enclosed. I'd have the pot open with grit on top to keep the seed from being dislodged with overhead watering - just giving it a fine spray from the hose or using a water can with rose is how I water pots with plants in them, and my seed pot would be discreetly tucked at the base of those pots. I would think you would need to be more careful topping with vermiculite, it would move around as easily as potting soil so that may be something you'd have to work out for your own convenience. But I think covered, sun, could get critically warmer than would be good for the seed.

If you mean the viola odorata you mentioned earlier, since it just needs a brief warm moist period I'd sow it now and leave the pots inside until mid March (about 2 weeks) or think St Patricks day if that's a day easy to remember to move it outside. Your nights and most days should still be cool March into April? My guess is that's enough conditioning to break dormancy for viola odorata, the seed doesn't need an extended chill.

I wasn't remembering that over the summer, they couldn't stay in the milk jug with the top on it. I would have thought of that once the pot was out in the yard and warming up. Ok, so no vermiculite. I'll look for some grit instead.

That's a great idea with the viola, to leave them in the house and then out. I imagine it should be cool enough out there from the middle of March to the middle of April. At least at night. I'll try that! That's settled.

Thank you Morz8!! Appreciate your time.

Agree that for seeds that need warm and moist followed by cold and moist to germinate that the easy thing to do is plant them in the containers and leave them in the house for a while before setting them outside. It's what I did with some juniper seeds. I sowed them in November (I think) and kept them in the house until mid January at which time they went outside. I'll find out in a few months if it worked.

Rodney

Would like to hear if it did work, TFOne.