Looking at these amazing trees in California made me want to try to grow one in Iowa. The odds of it maturing are pretty slim, but there is some hope, or so I read on the Internet.
First, I took the seeds out of one of two cones (decided to keep the second cone undamaged). By simply placing a cone into a plastic bag and shaking it, resulted in about half of all the seeds that I ultimately got. I think I had a cone with VERY few seeds as each cone is supposed to have over a hundred of them. Not satisfied with the numbers (around 10), I completely dis-assembled one of the cones, resulting in additional 10 seeds:
(August 19, 2012)
As the Internet wisely advises stratification increases the odds of germination. So I placed the seeds into a small plastic bag and kept it in a freezer for two weeks:
After two weeks at -2F I carefully moved each seed onto a coffee paper filter, folded the filter so that seeds were safely inside. Then I put the filter with seeds into a larger plastic bag, poured half an ounce of water inside, right on top of the filter, straightened it out with my fingers so that the filter was flat and smooth. Then again, following the Internet advice I almost closed the bag, leaving a small hole at the seam and blew air inside of it, making a cushy "pillow":
There were no changes after the first week. I added half an ounce of water after the first week as the filter started to get a bit dry, although there was still some condensate on the inside surface of the plastic bag. Two seeds germinated after second week:
