look inside to see if they contain ANY seed

ron

Duh!! Yeah, I already figured that part out :-) Yes, there are seeds. My question is if they would still be viable after hanging out all winter. I didn't see any sites that recommended stratification so was wondering if that would be a hindrance to germination.

There's definitely dormancy involved.

Transcriptome and Degradome Sequencing Reveals Dormancy Mechanisms of Cunninghamia lanceolata Seeds

http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/early/2016/10/19/pp.16.00384.abstract

Last spring, I managed to germinate about 5 Glauca seedlings using seeds from cones that were from the previous winter. I may have done a month of cold stratification, but don't recall. If you have enough seeds, just soak and germinate half now and soak/stratify the other half.

I've never tried the seeds because rooting them from cuttings is fairly easy. I have about 15 blue Cunninghamias that produce cones every year but no volunteers....so far.

Around here these get massive fairly quickly. If you are growing in containers not sure how good a fit.

Sara

sorry gal , but I did want to mention a post that got an awesome response from sc77

seeds fron cones

I harvested quite a few seed from the two cones I collected so I am just going to start them in some potting soil and see what happens :-) This is just an experiment on my part, as I have no deep desire to add Cunninghamia to my conifer collection. And as Sara points out, since I grow almost entirely in containers, not a great choice for that purpose!! The mother tree was enormous - maybe 60' tall.

Who knows.......maybe I'll have some babies to share at some point in time :-)

Thanks for all the responses.

Experimenting is fun. Even if it is doomed, it is still fun.

Experimenting is what it's all about as far as I'm concerned. It's a major part of how to learn gardening and all it's aspects. Beyond the basics, the sky's the limit. Even correcting mistakes is a learning experience...and fun too.