• The seeds of some plants, including many trees and shrubs, alpines and some perennials, need a period of cold weather to break their dormancy and encourage germination.
• You just have time to sow these now before the temperature rises, or you’ll have to wait until next autumn. Sow the seeds in pots, and place them outside in a cold frame.
• Or, mix them with compost and seal them in a plastic bag. Put it in the fridge for six weeks, then sow the seeds.
• For fleshy berries, such as sorbus or cotoneaster, slit the skin, place in bags of compost, and leave them somewhere cold. The flesh disintegrates over time, and the seeds can be sown in spring.…