Christine Schoene Maccabee
Winter Musings: What is Seed Stratification?
Through the many days and nights of the long, cold winter, trillions of seeds lay sleeping. They rest in their icy cradles of soil and stone, awaiting the warmth of spring. Offspring of grasses, flowers, and trees, these seeds—though inactive—are changing nonetheless, being prepared by moisture and essential freezes, which we humans must endure by piling on layers of clothing.
Stratification, though a perfectly natural process, is often used by botanists under controlled conditions in order to germinate the toughest of seeds. Some large nurseries start their fruit and nut trees, and shrubs such as dogwood and holly, from seed by use of this method. It is a bit more trouble than you and I would go to, requiring these hard seeds to be layered in damp sphagnum moss, peat or vermiculite and chilled for one to four months. Most wildflower seeds also need this hard freeze period. I have learned through trial and error that the germination rate of wildflower seed mixes is much higher in the seeds that are sown in the fall or winter. With seed mixtures you might order through the mail, frequently you will see instructions to place your seeds in the freezer for a period of time, prior to sowing them in the spring. As for vegetable seeds, simply keeping them in a cool place, not freezing, is sufficient. All seeds will suffer if too warm and too dry.
As human beings, we experience many cold, even difficult times in our lives, perhaps as a form of “human stratification.” Surely out of struggle and depth of feeling have come some of our greatest symphonies, art masterpieces, writings and other human accomplishments too innumerable to list here. Against all odds, such as Beethoven’s deafness or Van Gough’s madness, even out of the depths of depression, creative potential and genius are released through the cracking of a sort of protective epidermis. One of my favorite songs to sing with the guitar is “Beside Still Waters” by Dottie Rambo, whose pain nearly drove her to suicide. It is a powerful song, expressive of her pain, yet also the faith and hope she had in order to overcome it. Human stratification.
As I sit by my window, gazing out onto frozen gardens, fields, and mountains painted in shades of grays and browns on a backdrop of white, I acknowledge my own need for this “down” time. For many of us, January and February can be too cold, too difficult, even depressing. No one is exempt from those feelings at this time of year. To comfort myself, I reflect on all the wildflower seeds I scattered a few months ago in various places around the property, as well as all the seeds mother nature herself left to winter over on the ground. Those seeds will stratify and manifest into a beautiful, as well as useful, community of mostly native plants, such as black-eyed susan, daisy fleabane, cone flower, lupine, cinquefoil, evening primrose, vervain, moth mullein, milkweed, etc. Each perfect bloom that I will witness throughout the warm months ahead will have come forth as a result of successfully prepared seeds, some of which are even tinier than a grain of mustard seed.
Time passes all too swiftly some say. Even lonely, frozen days in February will pass more pleasantly if we contemplate the flowers to come, the potential within the soil, and the potential within ourselves. All we need, like the seeds, is to weather the elements of our lives with patience and hope.
Christine is starting a Friends of Nature Garden Club, which is seeking members for projects involving wildflower meadows, as well as formation of nature programs in the area. If interested, call Christine at 301-271-2307 or email at sonbirdschant@gmail.com.
