hello april
i am also new here but from every thing i have read the freezer seems to be for nothing more than storage but i am sure some one more qualified than me can answer more about that for you

you can direct sow them into the ground before winter and the cold might trigger them to germinate, but overall it is not needed. generally germinationg is erratic and unreliable. try to root some cuttings by bending a stem over and cover a bit of the stem then put a rock on it, this is called layering. or pile up some soil about two inches or so up the whole plant and remove the soil next season and all the stems should have roots coming out of it. lavender seeds cannot be counted on to produce lavender which has the properties that the parent has, ie. colour, smell, etc.

Lavendar is easy to root from cuttings.