Karen, if I were you, I wouldn't tie up multiple WS jugs with salvia seed 4-6 years old. They are said to be short-lived seeds. If it were just "direct-sow", or even "germinate on a coffee filter", maybe.
Veggie seeds or annual flowers not known for their sort-lived seeds, those I would try.
When I get around to another attempt at a Salvia bed, I'll try a germination test / stratification / test on some where the pkt is not tiny, Deno-style on coffee filters in the fridge. (And of course plant anything that germinates). Like, in a few years when I retire! Then I'll have some solid data points to report about salvia seed lifetime.
P.S. One advantage to older seeds that might have needed stratification when young, is that some species seem to lose some or all their dormancy after years in cool dry storage. In those cases, young seeds might have slow and irregular germination due to dormancy, but older seeds might have slow and irregular germination due to age.
Six of one, square root of 36 of the other.
