Whether the seeds are Evr or DOR may make a difference in how they do when frozen-stored. Most Evrgreen plants do not like to be frozen too much, too deep, too wet, too long a time. The same may apply to the seeds.
The difference between Dips vs. Tet seeds may be due to the fact that Dips produce tons of seeds--so the ones kept may be the better ones that could stand up to storage better.

Seedsower said:Yes Becky, I have my own little dorm size fridge that I store all my flower seeds in !

What temperature do you put your dorm fridge at?

I keep all my seeds at 46 Degrees F.
The seeds go in the refrigerator right after harvesting/drying/sorting/labeling/bagging. Each cross' seeds are in a plastic snack baggie with the cross written on a 1.75" x 3" sheet of typing paper. All the baggies are then placed in a paper lunch bag. That bag is then labeled with the type of seed, and the harvest year before going into the refrig.. I take them out after one to two months to see if any are sprouting, rotting, or need more drying. Otherwise they are kept refrigerated until I use them.
Hopes this helps.

I've never used peroxide in preparing seeds for planting. What is the purpose of it?

It is suppose to kill pathogens on the outer hard shell and help to break it down by allowing it to absorb more oxygen is what I have read. I don't normally use peroxide but I have experimented with it on a few seeds. I guess I was not to impressed , maybe because I had more seeds than I needed anyhow, so if a few did not sprout it was no big deal.

janwax said:I've never used peroxide in preparing seeds for planting. What is the purpose of it?

Hydrogen peroxide breaks seed dormancy in some plant seeds (if I recall correctly, in other plant seeds where this works it was found not to be related to the extra oxygen as suspected but to some biochemical process). The method is to soak the daylily seeds in hydrogen peroxide diluted with water until they sprout, which is usually fairly quickly, but IMHO stratification (damp chilling) is the better option to speed up and even out germination of daylily seeds that have seed dormancy (seeds that don't germinate immediately when given appropriate germination conditions).

I use about a 5% Hydrogen Peroxide (1) to water solution when I'm setting up my damp chilling. I soak my Perlite in it, which is what I will be using for damp chilling until I use up the bottomless bag of Perlite I bought 5 years ago. It's the same solution I use when planting the seeds and I use a 10% solution when I start watering the new seedlings.

I'm not sure if any of the HP does any good, but I get good results from my seeds, so I'm going to say it doesn't hurt and I have no reason to change.

(1) I'm using the common HP you can find in just about any store. I think if you read the label, that HP is already a 3% solution of HP to water. Don't overthink it. I'm talking about a 5% solution of the drug store bottle of HP to water for seeds and seedlings.

I use a few drops of HP in the water when starting out daylily seeds in starter cups with potting mix. For me, I believe it stops the growth of pathogens in the potting mix to keep the seedlings healthy. I did an experiment a few years ago and grew two batches of daylily seeds using my usual cup method. I watered half the cups with HP added to the water and half without HP (just plain water). The HP watered seeds sprouted faster and grew well. The water only cups had some seedlings that developed what appeared to be root rot/damping off. Since then, I use HP added to any watering I do with seedlings. I continue to use the HP until the seedlings have at least 5 or 6 leaves. My results have been considerably better doing that.

I have had 90-100 percent germination on several packs of seeds that have been stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 years. I even had 100 percent germination on one I'd had refrigerated for 5 years. My seeds still look pretty plump years later.

I crossed many seeds (maybe 200 or so) in 2014 and they were in the fridge in paper envelopes until May 2020. Many of them still seemed viable, but I didn't have room to plant them all, so only chose a few to keep. After a water/bleach bath in baggies in the fridge again for several months, I finally planted them outside last November. A few were beginning to show a little green in the baggie.

I am curious to see if they do anything this spring. I will try to remember to come back to this thread and let you know what happened to them.

Seedsower said:Yes Cindy, I tend to agree.

I had this seedling pop up in one of my beds, I know I didn't plant it, so it had to be from a seed that overwintered.

I know of a couple well known hybridizers that have spoken at our club meetings that direct plant their seeds in November, just before the ground freezes for the winter. I know the germination rate is lower, but they do survive the cold winter temps.

This one has turned into a marvelous plant!





The flower form and color changes from time to time

Oh, that's beautiful, Sandi! It looks like a bouquet

I might try that direct sowing thing if I have too many seeds to start indoors next year. Or start the ones I really care about indoors and let the rest take their chances.

I know others who direct sow with success, so I thought I'd give it a try too.

I think a lot of people think that the big problem with direct sowing would be the weather, but for me the big drawback would be the moles, the voles, the crows, the squirrels, the etc. etc.etc. etc.

with Larry. Too many critters here [add gophers, i got another one this week]