Beginner Gardening: How to get Lavender to start from seed, 1 by goofybulb

goofybulb wrote:
I had two attempts to germinate the lavender seeds that I bought (Munstead and French).
First time, completely unsucessful, I sowed them in home-made cells with seed-starting potting mix. Nothing germinated. In the same timeframe, two of my friends (I equally divided the packs so each of us would try her own ways) sowed them directly in their gardens, and nothing came up (more than 3 weeks waiting).
Then I thought that it might be too hot and humid in Miami (I did this I think mid August), and put the packs of seeds in the refrigerator. I forgot about them for some time (almost a month), and when I found them, sowed again in my home-made cells outside, in bright shade, and very superficially (almost uncovered). Munstead started sprouting in about a week, but with very poor germination rate (the final number of seedlings I've got was 5 out of 20). French was slower, it started after almost two weeks, but I've got 15 out of 20.
I still believe that keeping them in the refrigerator for a while helped them.
Also, you might want to try seeds from a different company. The ones I had didn't say when they were harvested. Later on I found that some other companies here put on their seed packs either the year of collection or they say "to be sold by 2008" or "for 2008 season" (I think the last version is Burpee's).
Do not despair, it's not you, lavenders are famous for the low germination rates. Try as many conditions as you think of, in small batches of seeds. If you find a method that works for you, and you need a lot of plants, you can always buy more seeds.
I wish you good luck and a lot of lavender sprouts soon!
PS. The one in the pic is Munstead.