This will be an interesting thread for me. I also will be starting yellow buckeye from seed next spring. I have some seeds from Maryland and Ohio that friends sent me. I saw some huge ones when I was on vacation in Tennessee and loved the way they look. I don't know if they will survive in south Alabama, but I'm going to give them a shot.

I grew a few from seed two springs ago. I stuck the seeds in the crisper drawer of my fridge until the end of December. January first I put them in a container with moist sphagnum moss and tossed them back into the crisper drawer. Check once a week for germination, as mine germinated during cold stratification. Plant any that start to germinate. At the end of February/early March, plant any remaining seeds that have not germinated. Out of about a dozen, I only had 1 or 2 that did not germinate for me.

Your alternative is to plant them in a pot, sink the pot into the ground, cover the top with mulch, and stick something overtop it to keep it squirrel/rodent proof. Mother nature will take care of the rest.

Could you post a pic of the tree? It sounds very beautiful.

Buckeyes are easy to grow from seed - I have grown red buckeye, painted buckeye, bottlebrush buckeye ... very easy. I get one gallon pots, fill them about 2/3 with dirt and put the buckeye in there, just lightly covered with dirt. Throw in a little mulch on top or shredded leaves. Take a piece of hardware cloth (or chicken wire, they are similar) and push it into the top so it is snug - this is to keep out the squirrels. Leave the pot outside all winter where it will get rain. You'll see sprouts in the spring (and the roots will be growing in the winter). My success rate is usually 90% or better.

In Georgia I don't have to sink the pots into the ground, not sure if that would be true for Maryland.

As Esh Ga and Treeguy suggest, do NOT store the seeds inside, except in the crisper drawer of your fridge, supposing you have room in there. It's probably safer to store them already planted, as suggested, or else in damp sawdust/sand in boxes in an unheated outbuilding. Once the seeds/nut dry out, they are dead.

Mine are in the fridge, in ziplock bags of moist potting soil. Will they be okay like that until after New Years day? Also, what is the furthest south anybody has seen A.flava growing?

I did germinate Bottlebrush buckeye seeds last year, and some rotted even after germinating. I still don't know what caused that.

You might be interested to know that not all buckeyes need cold stratification. Red buckeye will start sprouting almost immediately. All buckeyes should be planted as quickly as possible. The longer you hold the nut dry, the less viable it becomes.

You might find this interesting. It contains a lot of information about germination for different members of the Aesculus family.

I found it when I was looking up information on Aesculus germination being hypogeal (the definition from Wikipedia: In botany, a seed is described as hypogeal when the cotyledons of the germinating seed remain non-photosynthetic, inside the seed shell, and below ground. The converse, where the cotyledons expand, throw off the seed shell and become photosynthetic above the ground, is epigeal.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Aesculus

Wouldn't it best to just plant the buckeyes directly in the ground? Why use a pot if you know where you want it?

Well for one thing, when I plant them in a pot, I put screen over top so that the squirrels don't get them.