**Takes out pen and garden diary and readies herself for upcoming answers.**

I never store mine in the frig. I do try to keep them out of hot places though.

Have you ever tried Winter Sowing? I haven't done it in a couple of years, but for me, that is the most successful method I have ever used. It protects them a little and yet makes them sturdy because they are grown in regular conditions, There is a whole forum dedicated to the method :)

When I wintersow, I basically plant on top of the soil.

Lisa

There is no simple answer to some of your questions.

When you save and store seeds, you always should make sure they are very dry before you put them away in airtight containers. Otherwise they can mold or mildew in storage.

How to store your seeds is up to you. Seeds can be stored for the longest period of time if they are dried down to about 8% moisture, are sealed in completely airtight packaging and are stored in a freezer. When you store seeds this way, they maintain high germination for much longer than seeds stored at room temperature. When you store seeds this way, you're supposed to remove them from the freezer and let them thaw out completely before you open the container. This prevents moisture from condensing on the seeds and ruining their viability.

After the freezer, a refrigerator is the next best place for long-term storage, but only if you choose a spot in the refrigerator that maintains an even temperature.

After the freezer and fridge, any place that is cool and dry and which maintains a fairly even and constant temperature and humidity level works well. I usually store mine in either the linen closet in the upstairs hallway or in the kitchen pantry downstairs underneath the staircase. Both of them are in the center of the house so they are well-insulated from temperature swings. My seeds are in zip-lock bags inside plastic storage totes.

As for meeting the 8% moisture requirement, with most seeds you'll know they are that dry if they snap in half when you try to bend them. If they don't snap in half, they aren't dry enough. For big, big seeds like corn kernels or bean seeds, you can test for dryness by placing a seed on a hard surface and hitting it with a hammer. If it is dry enough, the seed will shatter.

Each flower you want to grow has its own specific needs in terms of soil depth, scarification needed if any, etc. One reason that the winter sowing technique Lisa mentioned works so well is that if you plant your seeds just after the winter solstice, they'll be exposed to a cycle of warmer/colder temperatures and varying daylength just like seeds that are outside on or in the ground, but they are more protected in the winter-sown containers. If you don't winter sow and you're planting something that needs scarification, you'll have to figure out how to get it the scarification it needs if Mother Nature stays too warm or too dry or whatever. Different seeds have different needs, and generally perennials and biennials can be trickier to start than annuals.

When seeds self-sow themselves by popping off a plant, falling off a plant, being blown off a plant by the wind or by being shed by a bird that ate the seed from the plant, they are not planted in the ground the way we humans think of planting. They're pretty much dropped on top of the ground. Then, over time they wash into the soil or are covered by duff or dying vegetation or whatever. Some seeds need light to germinate. Some need darkness. To figure out what each kind of seed you want to plant needs, you can Google. Often, I go to the website of Wildseed Farms because on their individual species listing, they describe what that specific species needs for germination, including the best soil temperature. You also can go to Tom Clothier's data base or similar seed germination databases to see what temperatures are best for what you want to grow.

I hope you can find seed. The flowers you mentioned either haven't bloomed here on our property (the wild Petunia didn't show up at all) or dried up before setting seed. It was that way last year too. I had great wildflowers this year partly because I bought a wildflower seed mix from Wildseed Farms and surface sowed it in winter. I did not water it in, but I did surface sow on a day when light rain was expected, and that light rain did water in the seeds for me. Our best wildflower show this spring was in the pasture I overseeded in winter. I intend to buy another wildflower seed mix and sow it in a different area this fall or winter. After several years of drought here in our county (2005, 2006, 2008, part of 2009, 2011, 2012), our wildflowers are not what they used to be, so I think they need some help. The wildflowers weren't bad in late winter and early spring 2012 and some of them were better than they had been for several years, but they were nowhere near as good as they used to be prior to 2005.

The right way to sow a large area in wildflower seeds involves more than just scatter-sowing seed on the surface of the ground. You're supposed to lightly disturb the soil (disturbing it too deeply can bring up tons of weed seeds that you may not want), sow the seed, rake to cover it, water it in, etc. You also can start them in plantable pots and transplant them, pot and all, while tiny. Or you can winter sow them and transplant them. You'll have to experiment to find what works best for you with your soil your rainfall and/or irrigation, etc. Our land is highly variable, and the soil really matters. Seeds that need well-drained soil, for example, generally fail to thrive in poorly drained soil. Plants that prefer sandy soil may or may not grow in dense clay, but they'll never look as good or grow as well in the clay as in the sand they prefer. On our property, there are some spots where poppies grow and reseed just fine, and other places where they just wont grow at all, etc. I have learned by trial and error that the only place Texas bluebonnets are happy on our mostly clay property is on the rocky edges of the gravel driveway and the area right adjacent to that. That's the kind of thing you learn as you go. Pink evening primrose, on the other hand, will grow anywhere and everywhere and will take over areas with good soil, especially irrigated areas. So, I only plant them in bad soil far away from the good soil and far away from any chance of irrigation. Otherwise they reseed too much and crowd out everything else. Goldenrod and liatris grow and bloom best on our slow-draining clay if I plant them on high spots where moisture can run downhill from them. Otherwise they drown in wet years. I tend to put them on eroded areas like the side of exposed banks or gullies. Watching what grows naturally on our property helps me figure out what I can add to that area. I just look for wildflowers with similar requirements.

I have a friend who sows his wildflower seeds when Mother Nature does. So, if his bluebonnet seed pods are busting open and scattering their seeds in June, that's when he scatter sows bluebonnet seeds in a new area where he wants to establish them, or to increase the number he has. He has surprisingly good luck with this technique, but it makes sense. However, plants scatter millions of seeds and only a percentage sprout and I think one reason for that is because the seeds sown naturally by the plants are exposed to the elements for so long. He just makes allowances for that by sowing a lot more seeds.

I'd suggest you request a free catalog from Wildseed Forms. It has very thorough instructions on how to establish wildflower plantings and lots of other helpful info. For example, the catalog this year had a section called "how to plant wildflowers" that went from page 2 to page 10. I love this catalog. I still have my copy from earlier this year somewhere in this house and they just sent me a new one this week. I'll spend one of those hot, miserable afternoons looking through it and deciding which seeds I want to plant this year. I always find something in there that I "need" in addition to the things I already knew I wanted.

I flipped to their catalog blurb on Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) to see what info they give in the catalog and here is what it saids: "Requires a very well-drained sandy or gravelly soil in full sun. Butterfly Weed may take up to two years to become established from seed." For germination (if sown outdoors) it shows a germination time of 30-90 days, optimum soil temp for germination 65-75 degrees, sowing depth of 1/16", and a blooming period of June-September. Their suggested use: Rock gardens, roadsides, mass plantings, borders. Their miscellaneous notes: "Produces a very deep taproot making transplanting difficult. The stem, when broken, does not produce the milky white sap characteristic of this plant family. Once established, it is very dependable." You also can find this type of info on their website. I just like having a paper catalog in my hand.

Hope this helps,

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Wildseed Farms

Thanks, girls. I see people talking about Winter sowing, but just don't know much about it. I really don't find looking up the Q&A sections on the other forums all that helpful, not to mention slow to respond.
Dawn, will look up Wildseed Farms. I have SOME seeds, but want more. Haven't seen the Petunia this year, either, and the Butterfly Weed is always scarce out here, for some reason. The Rayless Gaillardia grows over by Ringling, but not here. I will either take a seed hunting trip or order from one of the seed companies. Really appreciate the info!

Jeanie

The winter sow group are quite friendly and love to help newbies :) I grabbed one of their faqs for you. It should give you a pretty good explanation.

The VERY VERY short version is that seeds are planted in a covered container (milk jugs are popular, but I use the little reusable greenhouses). You wet the soil, poke holes in the top and bottom of the container, sow the seeds and set them outside. Once the seeds start germinating you start opening the container more (to keep them from getting cooked)

You can start as early as December. For Oklahoma it best to get it started at least by January. I drag my feet and usually start in February :)

Here is a link that might be useful: how to winter sow

The wintersown forum is great! They even have a program to send "newbie" seed packs. The folks there are as helpful as on the Oklahoma forum.

Thanks Lisa,
I've sown many, many seeds inside in years past, as I had set aside one of my bedrooms as a growing room with lighted shelving, and then would move the flats out to the greenhouse once germinated to harden them off. I even made my own pots out of newspaper with a little tool that I had ordered from a gardening catalog. It was such fun, but now that I live in a small cottage, don't have room for such a set-up. Winter sowing sounds like a good way to get a jump on the growing season outside, but I have become lazy and just want to Fall sow some wildflower seeds. I have become SO lazy that I have been known to plunk the entire cone of coneflowers in the soil and just wait for the results. Believe it or not, it works. I know you are supposed to plant the seeds six weeks before the first frost, BUT we are having such strange weather and, possibly, another warm Winter, that I am very uncertain as to when to plant and thought, maybe, some of you might have some advice. I have never really gotten into Fall sowing, and don't want to waste seeds. You are so very nice with your info! I can always count on serious gardeners to share their experiences!

Jeanie

Jeanie, I frequently throw all my cones and deadheads back into the flower beds. I figure whatever comes up, that is just a bonus! :)