Incredibly Resilient Sunflower Seeds

I know that seeds can last longer than we think in less than ideal situations, but this was shocking.

My parents gave my 4yo son a kit to grow some sunflower seeds for his birthday. He planted too many in his pot, and only two survived to be planted outside. They grew, produced, died, left standing all winter, and the next spring, some volunteers came up from the seeds that fell off. We saved seeds from a couple of those, but had to move. The seeds sat a year in a closet, then we planted them the next spring. He saved a few seeds from that batch, but then my wife left and took the kids. My son accidentally left behind the seeds he saved in his closet. I took them with me when we sold the house, but things were crazy, so they sat in my car in freezing temps (-35f) and roasting temps (well above 100f) for a year and a half. They were in a sealed plastic bag, so no air exchange.

I planted all 19 seeds that he had saved, and 16 of them have sprouted! I am shocked but excited, and so is he. We were not sure if any of them were still viable after the temp swings they had. He is already talking about how he wants to find the biggest 3 flowers and save seeds from those ones to make bigger flowers. I think I have a 9yo plant breeder on my hands :)

Mother Nature sometimes wows us with her resilience.

I have lived at this place for 10-plus years and depending on the spring rains I might see flowers I have never seen here before. And not just one instead whole field full of them.

This tells me that some seeds can live for years and Mother Nature has to stratify the seeds before I get to see what the seeds produce.

Thank you for sharing your seed story.