Shore pine seeds?

[WIlliam_Butler_Yeets]

Hey folks, so my family has a small beach house on the Oregon coast, and my stays there have led to me being very enamored of shore pine (pinus contorta contorta), and luckily there's one growing in the yard of the beach house. I'm gonna be heading over there this fall for a short stay and plan to gather a bunch of cones/seeds and try to germinate them and grow them back home in the valley (about 60 miles east). I've seen varying information about shore pine germination requiring either a 90 day cold stratification, or no stratification at all. Most sources agree germination rates can be low so I plan to get as many seeds as I can.

Winters in the valley can be a little variable, most of the time it'll be chilly and raining, and mostly above freezing but just barely, though we also have some nights below. 2024 was a real outlier in that we had a solid week that was almost entirely below freezing, and went to the low teens. Would I be better served by sowing the seeds this fall and hoping the seedling overwinter alright (with some management from me in case of severe weather) or stratify for the winter and sow in the early spring, hoping to plant enough that I wouldn't be adversely effected by a lower germination rate?

Photo of a lovely natural bunjin grande attached

 

[CapeCodBonsai]

My daughter lived in Sitka for several years and brought me a few Shore Pine cones during one of her holiday visits. I can’t remember how many seeds I extracted from the cones. The seed seemed to germinate well by refrigerating pre-soaked seeds in moist sphagnum moss (inside a ziplock) over the winter. The baggie was removed in early Spring and seeds were planted as their radicle emerged.

 

[Tahoebonsai]

I live in Lake Tahoe and we have the pinus contorta variety called sierra lodgepole( the native Americans used them for their teepees and that’s how they got the name lodgepole) and they require a cold strat and typically only germinate after a forest fire so I’ve had better luck just collecting small saplings I’m not sure that’s entirely the same with the shore pine but I would encourage you to look for some small ones to dig up and I can say the transplant rate was very high for me I just dig them up and put them right in a small container, probably the most underrated American pine in my opinion

 

[WIlliam_Butler_Yeets]

I live in Lake Tahoe and we have the pinus contorta variety called sierra lodgepole( the native Americans used them for their teepees and that’s how they got the name lodgepole) and they require a cold strat and typically only germinate after a forest fire so I’ve had better luck just collecting small saplings I’m not sure that’s entirely the same with the shore pine but I would encourage you to look for some small ones to dig up and I can say the transplant rate was very high for me I just dig them up and put them right in a small container, probably the most underrated American pine in my opinion

They're really lovely trees, I only started getting into bonsai earlier this year, but my first beach trip after I was very struck by the shore pines