bigdog

You'd be surprised about "ancient" seeds and their viability! Ensete seeds can stay viable for over 20 years in the soil, so if they are dried properly and stored correctly, you would think that they would have an even longer life. When they get dried out to a certain point and stay that way for long enough though, they seem to sink into a deep state of dormancy that nobody has figured out how to awaken them from just yet.

We found a huge pile of seeds a few weeks back in the headhouse area of the greenhouse on campus (I work there), mostly from the early to mid 1980s. One bag of Kosteletskya virginica, labeled 1982, was sown in a flat. Less than a week later, almost all of the seeds are up! It's in the Mallow family, and those seeds tend to stay viable for a very long time.

Reputable vendors are the only way to go, unless it is something not available by way of "mainstream" vendors (i.e., an individual). Even then, seeds can be bad or just old. Good luck with yours!