Most of mine do indeed bloom the first year but you have to time it right and the plants need to get lots of good growth during those crucial summer months. That means very very good fertile soil and plenty of irrigation, and singing to or near them helps.
Germinating these is easy. When you get your seeds, you can use the seed packet they came in to stratify them. You must stratify them for 60 days!! No exceptions to this rule.
So, my seeds come in a real nice ziplock baggy (the bags were a gift from
@RickCorey, thank you!). I then add quite a bit of dry vermiculite. If you don't have that you can use fine sterile potting soil. Mix it up really nice so the seeds are evenly distributed throughout the bag. Then add just enough water to the bag to moisten the contents. I use reverse osmosis water. I wouldn't want to add chlorinated water (but I'm not sure if that's just my paranoia.)
Mark with a sharpee the variety name and today's date on the outside of the bag, and put it in the fridge.
What I do is every couple weeks, take it, open it up, dump the contents into a clean bowl, mix it up quite a bit, and let it breath for a few minutes. Then repack it into the baggy and put it back into the fridge. Once the 60 days are up, take the contents out and spread them onto a folded paper towel. Spread it as evenly as possible, then fold in half and put it into a large ziplock or sandwich bag and place under growlights. (This is a form of the "paper towel method", which I'm sure you're all familiar with.)
Keep it warm (a heating pad helps). Check it daily. Within a few days you'll start to see germination. Pick each seedling out as they germinate and pot them into cells.
Transplant into the garden as soon as you think they are ready (the earlier the better! They languish when stuck in little pots). Make sure frost is long past. KEEP THEM WARM. Crepe Myrtles absolutely hate the cold and will be stunted, sometimes permanently. If it's cold outside, keep them inside your house.
I think I waited until mid to late April to transplant them into the ground.
This is what my bed looked like in mid July of the same year:
You see they are all about 12 inches tall. About half of them bloomed in mid August and beyond.
I offered 10 packets of my special crosses and all ten were dibbed. I'm excited to see what kinds of interesting plants you all grow! Good luck!
Thanks for the update Alana. I already have some trays full of soil and ready to go. I really thought these seeds would stop me from ordering new things. 
Nope. I ordered more seeds and plants in just the past week and my typical end of February plant craze has not even hit yet. Hopefully by that time I will be knee deep in seedlings and will be able to fight the urge for more.
I got some of your seeds and am very interested to hear about your technique for a hundred% success rate on germination. I have read they can bloom the first year. Is this correct?
again for all your work Alana and 
