Yes you can! Just make sure you harden them back off when they go back outside. Keriann~

Hi Greengardener, I had great success germinating about half a dozen types of seeds last year, that were packed for 1998 or earlier. Some had never been opened, but the red Zinnias had been sown before and they were packed for 1991! Much of the seed viability will depend on how the seeds were stored. Was it a cool dry place? I store mine in the fridge. You can perform a germination test on a few of the seeds to check their viability. I did this last Spring on some tomato, cucumber, and chile pepper seeds. I got nearly 100% germination! Btw, I am doing some germination tests on some of the seeds I collected Fall 08. It's great fun!

A couple years after the article Sharon posted was published. This was published. I can’t link to it since I am searching for these articles through my workplace at Caltech, and you would get a broken link, but here is abstract copied below. It seems that an important consideration for a banker plant used to host the predator mites is “tuft domatia”, which are little chambers on the leaves that are meant to house the beneficials. The plants provide little hidey-houses along with pollen :-) The predator mite Amblyseius swirskii is an omnivore, eating both pollen and other mites, thrips, whitefly etc. Selecting an ornamental pepper banker plant for Amblyseius swirskii in floriculture crops. By: Avery, PB et al. Abstract: Preference of phytoseiid mite, Amblyseius swirskii (Athias-Henriot) was assessed on four cultivars of ornamental pepper banker plant candidates; Red Missile (RM), Masquerade (MA), Explosive Ember (EE) and Black Pearl (BP) for potential control of pestiferous insects in floriculture. Significant differences in cultivar preference by A. swirskii was observed in choice experiments whether the test was pre- (with pollen) or during bloom. Overall, female mites laid more eggs when pollen was provided as a food source. The number of tuft domatia per cultivar leaf appeared to positively influence host preference in the choice plant tests pre-bloom. In addition, cultivar RM had the highest mean number +/- A SEM of tuft domatia per leaf (5.1 +/- A 0.3) and motiles per plant (4.0 +/- A 1.2), followed by MA, EE and BP. In choice tests on blooming plants, A. swirskii showed preference for both cultivars RM and MA compared to EE. These experiments indicated that the number of tuft domatia and availability of pollen can influence the host preference of A. swirskii for an ornamental pepper banker plant cultivar. Results from this study will help growers, researchers, educators and extension personnel in understanding the plant phenology promoting adoption of suitable banker plants for managing greenhouse and landscape insect pests.

Mike, Wading the Stillwater River in west central Ohio is out of the question this weekend. Just 30-40 miles north of me received 5"-6" of rain this morning, so even with waders and a PFD the Stillwater will be flooded and unfishable for @ 1 week. Very disappointed, but on the good side the 'kids will get out for sure as we're expecting 80's for the next week or so. Like Bill, I have a lot in bloom right now. As of earlier this week, I had 27 of my 70-80 orchids in some stage of bloom. Great time of year for us indoor northern hemisphere growers. I have 2 nodosas blooming right now and it is 'special' walking into the grow room first thing in the morning and smelling their fragrance. Back to the weather: I very rarely complain about too much rain, but it's getting pretty ridiculous here in Ohio, I think we are 10"-12" over average for the year. Lawns looks great!, but I have to mow every 4-5 days, if possible. Will probably be a dry hot summer and we'll wish we had the rain. Bob