Hi Sheila,

Do you have photos of the plants you collected seeds from? The oxeye daisy is not native to Michigan. It is listed as invasive in neighboring states. 

If you are trying to reintroduce plants, I would recommend sowing your native seeds in trays or pots. Once the plants grow, you can transplant them into the ground. You are more likely to be successful by growing small plants and then transplanting them.

However, if you do not want to grow plants, you need to put the seeds down this fall. Now is a good time. Plants are dropping their seeds as we speak. It's best to mimic nature and put the seeds down now. They need to go through the cold of the winter in order to germinate in spring. 

As a side note, "wild flowers" are often not native. Seed packets of wildflowers usually are a mix of European or Eurasian species. Make sure you only buy seeds that say "native". I always encourage people to read about a plant on the University of Michigan herbarium website to make sure it is native to Michigan before purchasing. 

Lindsey K. Kerr, MS, MHP (she, her, hers)
Consumer Horticulture Educator
Michigan State University Extension