Seed Needs Showy Milkweed Seeds for Planting - Untreated & Open Pollinated, Attracts Monarch Butterflies in a Butterfly Garden (1 Pack)

I have only used one of the two seed packages so far, but the one I used grew great! I took half of the seeds and cold stratified them, and stuck the other half in pots right away. I got a higher percentage of the seeds to grow when they were cold stratified, but I was surprised at how well the ones I threw in the soil right away grew. If you have an extra month to get them started, make sure you cold stratify them. Even if the percentage of growth wasn't much higher for me, they all grew equally in the same amount of time compared to not stratifying.Either way, I would recommend buying these seeds from this seller.

80%+ of the seeds produced sprouts and everything seems healthy so far. All the seeds look good - no obvious duds or deformities. I like that this particular variety of milkweed is native to my location, which apparently is important for the Monarch's health. Apparently, local-sourced seed is superior, but I'm doing this out of season and the price is excellent for these seeds. (BTW, xerces.org has a ton of great info on everything about milkweeds and Monarchs.)Here's what worked for me (I'm a complete noob at this, so some of this may be overkill, backwards, or completely wrong):+ Soak the seeds for 90 minutes, separate them out on a moist paper towel, seal them in a Ziplock, and leave them in the fridge for a month.+ The Jiffy Strips 'N Greenhouse (TS50H) makes for a very simple, no-hassle system that include the little peat holders and a covered tray to trap the humidity and keep things warm. For soil, I used what I had on hand: a palm, cactus, and citrus mix with about 10% additional perlite.+ Plant each seed under just a tiny bit of soil - like 1/4". The packet had 74 seeds, so it fit the 36 peat pot in the Jiffy system by using 2 separated seeds pot.+ Apparently, the seeds need to see daylight - I used a $6 Sylvania grow light bulb set on a timer for 12 hours/day and the tray was getting some indirect sunlight too.+ For water, I started with wet soil and used a spray bottle every other day...just enough to keep everything moist. The lid help a lot with this.+ 5 days after planting, the first sprout popped up.+ 10 days after planting, 2/3rds of the seeds had sprouted. There were a few seeds that tried to grow upside-down or were too deep in the soil.+ By 2 weeks, 3/4 of the seeds were going. No new sprouts since then.+ The picture is almost a month in. So far, so good.

Bugs love it.

Almost gave up seeds took 3 weeks to sprout.

Followed the directions with refrigeration time and got great germination rates. Slow growing though - a couple months in and they're only about 6-8" tall - just moved to larger pots and they didn't show any sign of transplant stress. I live in the woods with lots of critters that eat things, so going to keep these in large pots till next year when they're more established (hopefully).

Did not grow well

Also forced to write a summary...what's there to say? I put the seeds in the ground and so far they're growing. So I'm satisfied!

I really like Seedneeds, and the origin story. The milkweed seeds have been the most challenging to germinate. I live in a warm, semi-desert climate and it took slightly longer than a month for the seeds to germinate. They did so at different rates. Now that it’s hotter, they seem to be sprouting faster.