Sowing Central Washington native seeds for winter stratification

Only slightly behind schedule, I got about over 20 species of native plants seeded into trays and pots this month. Many plant species native to central Washington need a cold moist stratification period to break dormancy and germinate. This isn't a surprise as they need to be able to make it through winter before putting out tender growth, and even so the seedlings can be pretty cold tolerant. By leaving seed trays outside we're closer to 'wild' conditions and the seedlings should germinate accordingly. Cold stratification can also be achieved by placing seeds in the fridge. The winter has remained relatively warm so far, but it should be cold enough to signal the seeds that winter is happening. We'll see how it all goes, but with a little luck we should start to seed tiny plants begin emerging in about March. Really excited to expand a little this year and hope to have a larger diversity of species available to sell this fall. Every time I try to moderate my ambition about growing allll the native plants, I'm reminded that shifting baselines of plant communities already impacts what I see as 'normal' diversity and it makes me want to double down on the ridiculous, aspirational, audacious goals. My goal this year is to grow 5,000 native plants. We'll see how close we get! Species seeded include big sagebrush, rubber rabbitbrush, antelope brush, chokecherry, wax currant, golden currant, common yarrow, 2 species of buckwheat, royal penstemon, Richardson's penstemon, great basin wildrye, 4 species of lomatium (the butterfly lomatium sitting in pots overwinter is sprouting back already due to the warm winter presumably), prairie smoke, mock orange, Oregon sunshine, purple sage, blanketflower, blue flax and more. And more a handful more species to go in another month or so. Shrubsteppe Blooms is a specialty cut flower farm and micro native plant nursery. We live and grow in Yakima County in south central Washington state, zone 6b/7a.