If you look at the milkweed seeds at Prairie Moon Nursery they have a chart that tells you if they need stratification. Most of the native milkweeds do need at least 60 days of cold. The A. curassavica and the other tropical milkweeds don't need cold treatment. The southwestern milkweeds? Some may need cold treatment and others might not. I just sowed a bunch of milkweed seeds tonight. I soaked them in warm water for 24 hours. When I was sowing the Asclepias arenaria seeds it looked like 1 or 2 were already germinating. It's more of a warm area milkweed so I'm not sure it really needed cold treatment. I ordered more arenaria seeds just in case. The ones you winter sowed last year did need cold treatment. I'm going to sow tropical milkweeds outside in February at the same time I start Zinnias and other annuals. It's pretty easy to just google germination or go to Prairie Moon before sowing each species so you know exactly what to do.

I used milk jugs though that might not be the best solution (and I am doing it in pots on some things this year and thinking maybe soda bottles for something I'm planting next week), because I was decimated last year by slugs that got in where I cut the milk jugs. It depends..sometimes you get hundreds of seedlings, sometimes you only HAD five seeds to start with (like some peonies I planted). The goal is usually to get enough that I get seeds to get more (or divide). That's kinda like asking how many kids do you want, and everyone will have a different answer and it's all meaningless to anyone else. And the answer for every species will be different. For me, and for typical things I can expect upwards of 70% germination. Whether a grasshopper lands on the porch and eats them all (happened once) or slugs devour newly sprouted, doesn't come into the picture..that could happen no matter what you do, and has nothing to do with winter sowing techniques/procedures. That is simply the nature of nature. I haven't done anything seemingless ridiculous like winter sowing tomatos. There's no point for what doesn't require cold (at least to me), though I've read that people do such silly things with tropicals and many respond well to it and germinate when temperatures warm enough). Sometimes I suspect they use the same techniques and plant in March or April and call it wintersowing...thus some confusion.

I started out with around 100+ seeds and have left 60 give or take to leave in the freezer for about a month. Last year we bought two younger plants which we just left outside in pots which are now starting to sprout new growth (5-6 new stalks each). The ones that I have been trying to germinate outside of the freezer have been in a container folded in a damp towel for around 3 weeks and only one has sprouted and I am doing my best to nurse it. sorry for the lack of info I was just mainly concerned about the growth of my seeds being as the second year plants are doing just fine and will hopefully produce seed pods this year

can you be anymore specific on what plants you are asking about.... and do you happen to know .. or can find out.. how cold it was this winter in your area ... and perhaps tell us your location ... big city name ... z6 is about half the US and varies wildly .... zone is just the min winter temps for one moment in time during said winter.. so it doesnt tell us much ... usually you can figure out the answer.. by learning what self seeds in your yard ... all that said.. harvest some.. and try seeding them into flats or pots.. that are outside ... do it the easy natural way.. rather than complicating it all dragging them in the house .... ahhh... what the heck.. if you have room indoors.. try some there also ... over the decades.. i have found.. that i remember my little maniacal experiments .. much easier ..... as compared to what i read on the web .... ken