Dr. Deno notes that, for B. thunbergii (I assume that's what you have?), dry storage increases germination percentage and germination rate, so if you want to wait until next year, there's no harm done. [Interestingly, though, his experimentation showed that sowing at warm temps (70 F) was very unsuccessful ("essentially fatal", he says).] So it's up to you whether to plant out in fall, or to wait to sow until next fall.

My own observation is that, if a species is hardy, then the young of the species are just as hardy...otherwise their chances of normal reproduction by seed in nature would be severely compromised. So, I wouldn't hestitate to plant out any resulting seedlings. I suspect others may disagree with that, but hey, it's worked for me...but, much more importantly, it seems to work in nature.

Thanks for your research Lori. Presumably the mix will include Berberis thunbergii and open pollinated crosses.

This is the actual description: "A mix of various species and yellow and purple-leaved Berberis hybrids, such as 'Gold Ring' (purple foliage with a thin gold outside margin), 'Crimson Pygmy' (a low and dense purple-leaved cultivar to 2'), 'Harlequin' (new foliage mottled pink, cream and purple) and 'Rose Glow' (new foliage rose-pink, mottled with deeper purple splotches). Seed grown progeny of barberry hybrids produce very fascinating results, well worth the effort."

I have been dying to get a "Gold Ring" for years and it's not available in Canada yet so my fingers and toes are all crossed that I might get one at least something like it.

I certainly agree with you about young specimens being hardy... however these are rated zone 4 so who knows... and who knows how fast they grow... I guess I will just have to plant them and find out. I am "two months in the fridge" patient but not "wait until next year" patient!!

I germinated Berberis koreana a few years ago, I can't find any notes but I had a very good germination rate and the seedlings were tiny when going into their first winter and survived. They are taking a long time to get any size and are still very small, I moved them this past fall from the nursery bed into their new homes.

Sometimes it helps speed things up if you take the cold stratifiers out of the frig for 10 minutes per day and keep increasing the time in warm by five minutes or so until you get them to a full warm day. It seems to work very well with wildflowers, you could give it a try with a few.

I should have noted above, I do this with the paper towel method, I rarely germinate anything in seedling mix.

Thanks Tabardca, that is good to know. I only planted 16 so I planted them in starter mix in 3" pots and put them in a plastic food storage tub in the fridge. The lid of the tub fits loosely, does anyone think they will need more ventilation than this?

Is there any room left for food in your frig!? Your set-up sounds just fine, I wouldn't wait the 2-3 months in cold though, I am certain I didn't wait that long. Try them in warm in 4 weeks maybe and see if they will germinate for you. The introduction to gradual warm is best in my experience.

I must be on glue! I meant to say, try them in cold for 4 weeks then gradually go to warm.

By the way, Northspruce, for most species, the seeds don't sprout in the cool conditions - they usually sprout after being brought out into room temperature conditions (as tabardca is saying), so air circulation is not a big factor. That is pretty much proven by the "paper towel in a baggie method" which provides no air circulation, but does provide the necessary cold temperature stratification.

Cool thanks gals - will update in a couple of months when it's time to warm them up.

Starting from seed sounds interesting - you never know what you might end up with.

Just thought I would pass a note, however, for those looking for barberry shrubs that Superstore has a few pots of a golden leafed one called berberis thunbergii 'sunsation'. They also have lots of the red 'cherry bomb' ones. My Mom did get ruby carousel from Cdn tire as well.

I just thought I would mention about the golden 'sunsation' one as last year in my shopping search it seemed none of the stores carried any gold ones.

Now if only we could find that 'gold ring'.

Glen

Update - I took the container out of the fridge to have a peek last night, since it's almost two months and time to warm them up. One has already sprouted! So I didn't put them back in the fridge, but left the lid off and put the container in my back porch at normal room temperature and no direct sunlight. I hope all the others hurry up and sprout too. I didn't think it would be this easy!

Watching like a hawk for gold rings - LOL