Wow, I never knew pretreating and preparing native wildflower seeds for germinating could be so complicated!

There’s dry cold stratification, hot water treatment, cold moist stratification (for varying lengths of time), various combinations of cold/warm/cold strat for long periods before you can even think of germination, scarification, inoculation, parasitic species requiring host plants… and while you’re waiting to rotate all your currently germinating veg/flower/herb seeds to make room for all the above, you have to store the wildflower seeds properly.  And then of course there’s no guarantee that your wildflowers will germinate for years, or for that matter, ever!

OMG, how do people juggle it all?!  And this is after having ruthlessly reduced my seed orders to the ones I just couldn’t do without!  I still have veg seeds waiting their turn to be started indoors at the proper times, stratifying seed flats taking up space in the fridge, and already-germinated seedlings that will have to play musical chairs to make room.  Eventually I’ll have to transplant some to bigger pots and find room for them until they can go outside.  It’s like a chess game, only with living, perishable pieces.

I know, obviously people have been doing this for generations, but I guess this is the first time I’ve been in a position to even approximate suitable growing conditions.  It’s a learning curve, but it’s definitely educational.  I guess you can teach an old fart new tricks.

Misu says, “What’s the big deal?  It’s simple, just feed me!”  Maybe she’s got the right idea.