That's interesting. It sounds as if there is a difference between the Connecticut populations and the Maryland populations in this regard. Here in zone 7 Maryland, the seed actually germinates in the autumn and goes into the winter with a two to three inch root already down into the soil. I've never seen many unrooted seeds at that time of year: I think either something is eating them or, more likely, they get moved around before they root during flooding (they are on a floodplain). Jim McKenney