JANUARY 2026 NEWSLETTER

Seeds in winter

We are heading into the depths of winter, when snow is deep on the ground and spring is far away. If you want to be technical, we are 22 days past the solstice. Some people dislike winter, and they are already counting the days until spring (66 days!). I love winter, especially January and February. They are quiet, magical months, full of sparkling snow and clear beauty.

The native seeds outside on the landscape are fast asleep under a layer of snow. We call their state of slumber ‘dormancy’. The seeds know what they are doing, trying to grow in this weather would be foolish. So they wait.

If you have tried to grow native seeds you will very quickly learn that many species have dormant seeds. They will not germinate until they have received a secret signal that the coast is clear, winter has passed and it is safe to come out of hibernation. What makes the adventure of working with native seeds so fascinating is that all the different species have different secret signals. And over time and changing conditions, the secret signals also change.

A few examples of secret germination signals are: light (or dark), a crack in their seed coat, warm temperatures, a period of cold temperatures, or even alternating temperatures. They might need some combination of signals. When we directly sow our seeds in the garden in the fall or winter sow them in containers the seeds naturally receive these signals. You don’t need to know which signal each particular species needs. It is why these two techniques are so effective.

*This year’s winter sown seeds. I put these boxes outside at the beginning of December.*

Discovering secret signals

Last spring I collected seeds from seventeen different sedge species. I had a hard time finding germination information for them so in the summer I started a series of experiments in my basement (this detail becomes important later). For the first batch I exposed some of them to light and kept some of them in the dark. I put another batch into cold, moist stratification in the fridge for two months, and when I brought them out I put half under light and kept half in the dark.

In the first batch (without cold stratification), none of the sedges that were sowed in the dark germinated. Three species that were exposed to light had some germination. After these discouraging results I put the trays outside to make room for other things and promptly forgot about them, until one day when I walked past and saw that four new species had germinated. At this point it was the end of September and the only difference between the conditions in my basement and outside was that the temperature outside was dropping overnight while the basement stayed constant. Quite by accident I found that the secret signal for those four species was alternating temperatures and exposure to light.

In the second batch, after two months of cold stratification two new species germinated. The other seven species also germinated, and now they germinated in both light and dark conditions, and they no longer needed alternating temperatures. So their germination signals changed while they were stratifying in the fridge.

If you’re following along with the math, you’ll notice that only seven of the seventeen sedge species germinated. I have not yet found the secret signals for the other ten species with this set of experiments.

*One of the batches of sedge germination experiments. There are seventeen different sedge species and one grass species.*

The Plot Thickens

With the first round of germination experiments I used fresh seeds that I had just collected. But what happens when seeds have been drying for a few months? Are the seeds exactly the same, or have they been gradually changing over time? Will they respond to the same secret signals?

These are important questions to answer. Chances are very high that the seeds that you purchase from a seed company will have been dried and stored for at least a few months. It was time to run the germination trials again.

These trials are running right now, but early results are showing that the seeds were changing while they were in dry storage. The species that needed alternating temperatures while fresh are now able to germinate at a constant temperature without stratification.

*What do I do with the sedge seeds that germinated? I plant them, of course!*

The changing nature of seeds

We tend to think of seeds as static, or inert, while they are sitting dry in their seed packets. In reality, they are living organisms, constantly changing in subtle but important ways. If you are interested in diving deep into the scientific research on this topic, I found this great article by Baskin and Baskin on breaking seed dormancy during dry storage.

Don’t let all of this complexity scare you from growing native seeds. Your native seeds want to grow and germinate in the spring. Whether you direct sow, winter sow, or put your seeds in the fridge, chances are good that they will get the signal to grow when the time is right. If you haven’t winter sown your seeds yet, now is the time! And if you need seeds to sow, almost all of our species are available to purchase in our online shop.

In the meantime, I encourage you to get outside and enjoy the beauty of winter. You only have 66 days left to read books by the fire, cross country ski, feel the snow falling on your eyelashes and listen to the quiet of the forest in winter.

Wishing you the best of winter’s wonders,

Andrea