A simpler approach to growing native perennials from seed using winter sowing, plug trays and a little patience
By Beccalynne Jordan | Growing With Beccalynne
Echinacea I winter sowed in the winter of 2024/2025 and they finally bloomed summer 2026.
There is a funny thing that happens when you first start looking into growing native perennial plants from seed: it can suddenly feel much more complicated than growing anything else.
You start hearing about cold stratification, germination requirements, specific temperatures, broadcasting seed, fall sowing and all the different ways certain species supposedly need to be started and while all of that information has its place, I think sometimes we make growing native plants sound harder than it actually needs to be.
Over the years, I’ve grown more and more perennial plants from seed, and my approach has become increasingly simple.
I don’t start everything indoors.
I don’t have trays of native plants taking over my house for months and I certainly don’t try to recreate winter inside my refrigerator when I have a perfectly good Canadian winter sitting right outside my door.
Instead, I look at what the seed actually needs and choose the easiest way to give it those conditions.
Sometimes that means winter sowing.
Sometimes it means starting seeds outside in plug trays during the growing season and sometimes it means putting seed directly into the garden and letting nature handle the rest.
Growing native plants from seed doesn’t need to be one single process.
Start With the Seed, Not the Calendar
One of the biggest changes I made was stopping myself from treating every seed packet the same.
We’re so accustomed to thinking of seed starting as a spring activity. February arrives the grow lights come out, trays start appearing in windows and suddenly it feels like everything needs to be germinating indoors.
But perennial plants have their own timelines.
Some seeds need a period of cold, moist conditions before they will germinate. This is cold stratification and it mimics the winter conditions those seeds would naturally experience outdoors.
For those plants, I would much rather use the winter I already have.
That is where winter sowing comes in.
Winter Sowing Does the Stratification for You
My winter sowing was set up in the unheated greenhouse this winter.
Winter sowing has become one of my favourite ways to start perennial plants that require a cold period.
Instead of measuring out damp growing medium and dedicating refrigerator space to bags of seeds, I sow them into containers and put them outside.
Then winter does what winter does.
The seeds experience the cold temperatures, moisture, freezing and thawing they would encounter naturally. When conditions become suitable for germination, they begin growing.
It is beautifully uneventful and that is part of why I love it.
You don't have to constantly manage the process. You're simply giving the seed a protected little place to experience the conditions it was designed for.
This method has also helped me stop worrying so much about exact germination dates.
The seedlings don't care that my indoor seed-starting calendar says it is time to grow. They germinate when their conditions are right.
That is a surprisingly freeing way to garden.
But Not Every Perennial Needs to Be Started in Winter
This is where I think growing native plants from seed can become unnecessarily intimidating.
Once we learn that some native perennial seeds require stratification, it is easy to start treating every native perennial like it needs an elaborate pre-treatment.
It doesn't.
There are plenty of plants that can be started during the growing season without spending months indoors first.
For these I really like plug trays.
I'll sow seeds into individual cells and keep the trays outside where I can water them and keep an eye on their progress. They get natural sunlight, natural temperature fluctuations and outdoor conditions from the beginning.
There is no hardening-off period because they already live outside and because they are growing in individual plugs, I can wait until they have established a decent little root system before moving them into the garden.
Took advantage of a rainy week and got these Helen’s Flowers germinated!
This has become one of my favourite ways to grow plants because there isn't the same rush that comes with vegetable seedlings.
A tomato started indoors in spring has a very obvious goal: grow quickly enough to produce tomatoes before frost.
A perennial is different.
My goal isn't necessarily to get flowers from it this year.
My goal is to establish a plant.
The First Year Doesn't Have to Be Impressive
This may be the biggest mindset shift of all.
When you're growing perennials from seed, the first season can feel underwhelming if you're expecting a finished garden.
Sometimes you get flowers.
Sometimes you get a small green plant that looks like it accomplished absolutely nothing all summer.
Meanwhile, underground, it may have been doing exactly what it needed to do.
It was establishing roots.
It was adapting to its location.
It was preparing itself to survive winter and come back again.
That changes how I judge success.
If I start a perennial in a plug tray in June or July, plant it into the garden later in the season and it establishes before winter, I consider that successful.
I don't need it to put on a show immediately.
I need it to come back because once that little plant returns the following spring, we're playing an entirely different game.
You Can Also Let the Garden Do the Work
There is another option that requires even less intervention: sowing directly outside.
After all, plants were reproducing quite successfully before we owned seed trays.
Seeds naturally fall to the ground. They experience rain, snow, freezing temperatures and spring warmth. Some germinate and some don't.
Direct sowing can recreate that process beautifully.
The downside is that you have less control.
Seeds can wash away. Birds and other animals can find them. Tiny seedlings can be difficult to distinguish from weeds. Dry weather can make germination more challenging.
That doesn't make direct sowing a bad method. It just means it isn't always the method I choose when I only have a small amount of seed or I'm particularly invested in a certain plant.
That's where containers and plug trays can give a happy middle ground.
You can work with natural conditions while still keeping track of what you’ve planted.
There Isn't One Correct Way to Grow Native Plants
This is really what years of growing perennial plants from seed have taught me.
You don't have to choose between scattering seeds into a field and creating an elaborate indoor propagation operation.
There is a whole lot of gardening in between.
If a seed requires cold stratification, winter sowing can let your actual winter provide it.
If it doesn't require that cold period, you may be able to start it outside in a plug tray once conditions are appropriate.
If you have plenty of seed and an area where you want plants to naturalise, direct sowing might make perfect sense.
The method should fit the plant, but it should also fit the gardener because a growing method isn't particularly useful if it is so complicated that you don't want to do it.
My Goal Is a Plant That Comes Back
Dotted Mint from Northern Wildflowers - I winter sowed and will enjoy them in tea year after year.
I think this is why I've grown to enjoy starting perennial plants so much.
I'm not trying to produce the biggest plant as quickly as possible.
I'm growing something for next year and the year after that, and hopefully many years after that.
That gives me permission to slow the whole process down.
A seed can spend winter outside.
A seedling can spend summer quietly growing in a plug tray.
A tiny perennial can go into the garden without looking impressive yet.
None of those stages are wasted time.
They're simply part of growing a plant that is meant to stay and once you stop expecting every seed to be started indoors in spring and every plant to perform in its first season, growing native perennials from seed starts feeling a whole lot simpler.
Maybe that's the real trick.
Don't make the process more complicated than the plant needs it to be.
Beccalynne.
About the Author
Beccalynne is the gardener and writer behind Growing With Beccalynne, where she shares the experiments, successes, occasional garden chaos and lessons that come from growing food, flowers and perennial plants in her Ontario garden. Her work focuses on making gardening practical, approachable and a little less intimidating, with an emphasis on learning by actually growing things.
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