Hi Adidas, I do not have experience with blue cohosh or spicebush, but I do grow Canna lilies from seed each year. It is recommended that these seeds be scarified and soaked before sowing in order to germinate, but I simply winter sow them and that takes care of them. I would think that once both of these plants are perennial in your area, that winter sowing would save you lots of time and effort. You may want to try them both. That's just my two cents worth.

Hi Northerner and thanks for your input!

I think I'm just going to do what you suggest and wintersow w/out scarification or stratification. However, there's a gap (I think) of several months between collection of seeds and wintersowing. Do most people clean up their seeds and store them in the fridge?

I collect lots of seeds and I clean them up, make sure they are very dry, and store them either in small paper bags, or in those little zip loc bags you get at the dollar store. I then store them in air tight containers in darkness until I sow them. You must be sure they are dry (you may also put some of those little silica gel packets with them), and you want no moisture or light to get to them because that's what will start germination, which you don't want until you sow them. Moisture will also lead to rotting, or fungus development. There are some people who store their saved seed in little envelopes in the fridge (not the freezer). I have never done that - perhaps some other user my want to offer advice on that. You may also want to read the FAQ's on the Seed Saving Forum on this Web.

Thanks Northerner! I shall store my "dry" seeds in paper bags! Putting dry seeds into the fridge seems a little risky since the fridge tends to add moisture to things!