Hi Carol,

Wow! What an exercise in frustration this could turn out to be!

I am not a huge fan of mixed seeds because different seeds have different sowing requirements. So, if it were me, I would probably separate the seeds as much as I possibly could. Then I would look up the sowing requirements for each one and try to meet those needs. Petunia seeds, for example, are tiny and need to be sown on the top of the soil and pressed gently into the soil. Milkweed seed probably needs cold stratification like it would get in nature, unless the lady who sent you the seeds kept her seeds in the freezer, in which case the cold stratification has already occurred.

I would sow them in flats and hope for the best, but would save the ones that are spring bloomers, like petunias, for next year because it is too late to start them now for this year.

If you can't completely separate them out before planting, you could sow them in flats and separate them out before you transplant them.

On the other hand, if you want to create a natural-looking ' wildflower bed' (even though all these seeds are not actually wildflowers, you could mix them with a coffee can of sand and scatter them, sand and all, over a prepared bed and just see what sprouts, what grows and what it gives you. The purpose of the sand is to divide and spread out the seeds so they don't all sprout in tiny little clumps. This can be harder than it sounds, though, because weeds will sprout too, and it will be hard to tell some of the weeds from some of the seedlings.

For what it is worth, I planted a mimosa tree for the hummers and they absolutely adore it. I understand, though, why you might not want one in your landscape. It can be a messy, weedy tree and is often short-lived.

Good luck with your seeds. Let us know what you do, how you do it, and how it turns out. With this being a cooler than average and wetter than average year, it probably would be a good year to sow from seed in late May/early June and get satisfactory results. In a typical drought year, it might be harder to sow seeds and have good results this late in the spring.

Dawn