Hi,
Sure it worth planting them. As long as they were mature before winter started, they are good. It is natural for them. Seeds are built to withstand winter and sprout in spring.
Remy

I use these old marigold seed. I plant a surplus and thin them rather than careful equal spaced planting that one might use with purchased seed. Success might depend upon what sort of marigold they were. "Doubles", in my experience have a rather poor germination rate whilst my semi-doubles and singles have usually shown good germination rates.

Hey, this must have been the week of cleaning old boxes, etc. out. I found 3 envelopes of seeds that people had sent me back in 2006 off the HGTV garden message boards that evidently had got laid inside a cardboard box and other stuff got jammed on top on them. I scattered the gomphrena seeds into one of my flowerbeds. They were inside a coffee filter, inside an envelope. I just opened up the coffee filter and scattered the contents. Since I don't know what the seeds look like new, I really don't know if there were seeds inside or seeds/with chaff. What came out looks like white papery stuff. There are some sparky marigolds seeds inside one envelope and cleome seeds in another. All envelopes dated 2006. Will be interesting to see if they germinate. Should I pull back the mulch and dig these seeds in or just scatter some potting mix over them? It rained last night and yesterday afternoon, so they don't need to be watered for a few days.