Old Seeds Still Germinate

While cleaning out the seed box to make sure everything was ready for next spring, I found an old package of Glaskins Perpetual Rhubarb seeds.  I had bought them years ago to start some new Rhubarb for the garden, and had a lot of seeds left over that were never used. I really don't need any more Rhubarb plants, and thought about throwing out the old seeds.  But the gardener in me wouldn't let me throw them out, so I decided to plant a few to see if they would germinate. I set up four 4" Cow Pots to plant them in, then dumped the Rhubarb seeds in some warm water to soak them over night. After the seeds had soaked, I put 4 seeds in each 4" pot expecting maybe one of the 4 would germinate. Today I went out to check on them, and was surprised to see that 4 seeds had sprouted in 3 of the pots, and 3 seeds had germinated in the 4th pot - 15 of the 16 seeds germinated.  Apparently Rhubarb seeds are very durable.  Now, I will have to do some transplanting seedlings to their own pots, and then I will have to find friends or neighbors that would like to start a Rhubarb plot.

But then, Baker Creek's seeds have always been very reliable....

Mark, it doesn't surprise me that Rhubarb isn't in Mel's book. It is a very durable perennial that grows primarily in the northern climate since they require at least 6 weeks of below 40ºF temps to force dormancy. And, since the plants grow about 3' diameter and about 3' tall, they aren't a good candidate for SFG.

 As I recall, seeds were packed for the 2015 planting season, which means they were harvested in the fall of 2014.