I lost all of them when during one fall they grew too vigorously only to be destroyed in the winter.
=====>>> did you hyper-fertilizer them late in the summer or early fall.. leading to lush green growth that did not harden properly before the first heavy frost/freeze????

in my experience.. peat pots are IMPOSSIBLE to use.. in a house ... especially if you have a forced air furnace ... it wicks the moisture form the media.. causing undue stresses ... [i suspect peat pots would be bulletproof in a greenhouse with super high humidity]

my suggestion .. 6 oz plastic dixie cups ... and use a razor blade to cut the bottom edge in about 3 places for drainage ...

and a good seedling media ... its much finer than regular potting media ... and sterilize it in the microwave or oven ... see link

do you use supplemental light???

wait.. you want winter sowing outside.. or in the house??? your title plus the peat pot issue confuses me .... do some of both .... since you have a few seeds to work with ..

anway .. isnt 2000 seeds a bit of overkill .. lol ... i guess you are really working on insuring success .. lol ..

ken

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Here is a link that might be useful: link

Ken: thanks for the advice; I have previously sown them indoors in peat pots but this year I think will try to winter sow but use peat pots since they do not transplant well. and of course put these larger container (clear tote or mild jug) in a container.
But can I get good results from direct sowing in the early spring in this zone 5

I have an unheated southwest facing enclosed porch which wrms and freezes quite bit. so i will experiment here with large containers as permanent homes for larkspur and molucella.

I would recommend direct sowing as soon as you can see the ground. I've wintersowed larkspur in milk jugs before and had OK results. But the volunteers I got in subsequent years were much taller and stronger. I suspect that the larkspur roots (the microscopic ones we don't see) go deep early in the plants' development. So, they prefer to never get moved, even if the container isn't disturbed, ie peat pots. Just my two cents worth.

Martha