Stratification is not required but will likely increase germination percentage and speed up the process. Untreated seed will take longer to germinate. If it were me, I'd cold stratify them for 6 to 8 weeks. After planting the seeds, keep them somewhere that has some light (in a room with a window, etc). I don't think they need light for germination, but it won't hurt and it's not hard to provide. If seeds are planted shallowly, they'll get enough light if the room has some light.

These are hardy in the UK and there are now quite a lot of big old specimens about from the 60s and 70s when they were fashionable. If kept small by regular coppicing you will always have the round, silvery juvenile foliage.There's some info here. Scroll down to 'Propagation' for seed sowing advice.

Here is a link that might be useful: E gunnii

Stratify them until they begin to sprout, then plant immediately

is it legal to propagate Proven Winners from seed???

did you buy the seed from PW???

if not bought from them ..... they may be open pollinated.. and may not come true from seed ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

"is it legal to propagate Proven Winners from seed???"

Why wouldn't it be????????????? I've never heard of any woody ornamental plant with plant variety protection.

Is "Silver Drop" even a named cultivar, or is it a promotional name given to common E. gunnii by PW?

Quite a few sources (including some university horticultural publications and professional organizations) list 'Silver Drop' as a proper cultivar name.

Thanks all, for your input. I have the seeds in the fridge now stratifying. I will keep an eye on them daily to make sure they haven't germinated in there, but if they haven't after 8 weeks I will take them out and bring them into my germination room where I have both bottom heat mats and grow lights.

Ken - Gosh, I sure hope its legal. I bought the seeds from PineTree. In searching for info I went to dozens of websites and one of them mentioned it was a proven winner of 2007? but I'm not sure if it meant that it is a 'trademark' PW.

I chose Silver Drop because it is supposedly more dwarfed than Silver Dollar.

Anyway, it's one of my "experimental" plants for this year. We'll see how it goes.

The name Eucalyptus gunnii 'Silver Drop' is widely presented as a cultivar name and therefore does not qualify for trademark protection. A company could use another name to sell the plant (eg. Brandon's Bodacious Eucalyptus series), and have that name trademarked, but nothing like that has been mentioned here. If the plant was being sold under a trade name, that would not preclude seed propagation. It would only limit what you could name your plants when reselling them.

The plant itself, Eucalyptus gunnii 'Silver Drop', does not appear to be patented. Since there is no patent, you are free to vegetatively propagate it (cuttings, grafts, etc). Plant patents only apply to vegetative propagation.

Plant variety protection is used mostly for some agricultural crops to limit propagation from seed. I know of no woody ornamental plant that has ever been given this legal status. And, to go to even further extremes, I am absolutely sure that there is no patented gene in this plant. Growing the seed is 100% legal.

Thank you Brandon. That is good information! You are very smart about this. That's why I love these forums.

Thank you for the compliment. I actually learn a lot from the conversations on here too.