cranebell, I was a bit skeptic myself last year so I waited until the end of march to winter sow them. I'm in zone 5 so I thought I should avoid negative temps outside. I had almost 100 percent germination by April 19th and planted them out by May 31st. I have to admit I'm waiting again until March for the petunias.

I also had great results with nicotiana too - I winter sowed those in February and had sprouts starting April 2nd.

I see you are a zone higher so you may have germination sooner.

Here is a picture of winter sown Lipstick Kisses petunias around the end of June: (The Grape Hyacinth bean in the pic was also winter/spring sown):

{{gwi:218251}}