Happy cold-moist stratification!

Happy New Year to all! Good health, happiness, good germination, beautiful plants and gardens in 2026!
We all hope for a better year and there is nothing more hopeful than sowing seeds and waiting for their germination in the spring!

With copious amounts of snow in most regions of Canada, this is a happy winter for cold-moist stratification outdoors. Sow, keep the pots inside for a little bit and then place them outside under snow.

Using a plastic box is not mandatory, but it will just prevent critters scratching the pots during the snowless periods and in the early spring (a mesh fixed on top works the same).

I continue to use the term ‘cold-moist stratification’ to make the process clear and because I noticed that some people use it with a wrong meaning: “stratification” per se implies a moist medium. Keeping dry seeds in the fridge do not equal stratification.

For many seeds (species) that’s all they need to germinate properly: 2-3 months of cold (moist) stratification, preferably with variations in temperatures throughout the cycle.
Not all the species need it to be as cold as it is right now, but certainly those from the Ranunculaceae family are having a blast this winter!

*What happens if species that are actually warm germinators are sown in the fall/winter? Nothing bad, good seeds (attention to most  species from fam. Asteraceae) should germinate in late spring with the raise of temperature (with the exceptions of the ‘two-stage’ germinators that first require a warm cycle followed by a cold one in order to germinate – those I keep advocating to be sown in July-August at the latest).