One of my favorite winter games is to pull seeds from my seed bank and try to germinate them. It's surprising how often at least some of an old lot will germinate. Garden nasturtiums and morning glories germinate from twenty year old seed stored in the refrigerator (not the freezer).
Late last winter I pulled a pack of dill seed purchased in 1996; when sown in the garden this gave abundant germination.
Jane's question about the performance of tropical and sub-tropical seeds can be seen in any garden where "annuals" are grown (in quotes because in fact many of the plants grown in gardens as annuals are in fact perennial in nature). In our climate, fall is often warm enough to cause self-sown seeds these seeds to germinate: the resulting seedlings die in the subsequent cold. But if the seeds are shed late enough that the weather does not encourage germination, then self-sown seedlings often appear the next year. Typically these germinate late and often do not reach blooming size before frost (fibrous begonias are a good example here).
Old books often contain lists of hardy annuals, annuals which can be fall sown with success (larkspur and corn poppies are familiar examples). Modern gardeners seem for the most part to have lost the art of fall sowing plants. My fall sown larkspurs are four to five feet high; plants sown in late winter or spring are typically one to two foot runts.
A tiny quibble: Draba and Erysimum are indeed crucifers, but the name of their family is Cruciferae, not Apiaceae (which is the family, also called Umbelliferae, of carrots, parsley and such).
Jim McKenneyMontgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the temperature today (28 F) is about twenty degrees lower than the temperature at this time yesterday.
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