I've saved as much seed from SPS as I could, because I was under the impression that they didn't generally self seed with any consistency. I suspect that
mice and other critters eat a lot of the fallen seeds because they lay on the ground for so long. Mine start to drop seed in mid July and don't see any snow coverage til about December. That leaves them exposed for quite a long time to the garden pests.
About how many seedlings have sprouted up in your space versus the total number of seeds that actually went into the soil? I've had really good germination rates when planting in flats but have yet to see a single seedling under either of my shrubs. I always leave a few pods on the shrub to see if it'll self germinate. So far, no luck.