I have had success winter sowing and growing
Aquilegia caerula Mckana's Giants
Digitalis Excelsior
Lupine "Russel Hybrids"
Thalictrium

Have also successfully winter sown different varieties of the others listed.

I let my larkspur self seed and will take a plant stem with seeds on it and drag it in other areas where I want larkspur the next year. That technique works well for many self sowing plants.

Larkspur also winter sows well.

Cosmos which is an annual and Gaillardia will be great to start from seed for a cutting garden.

I think all your choices are good.

My larkspur didnt self sow and I sprinkled all my seeds around the flower bed and didn't save any so I was sorry. Keep a few seeds aside for WSing in containers. I'll probably get yelled at again this year for saying that ;>.

I am in zone 5 and last year was my first year wintersowing. I kept an excel sheet of what I started when and when things germinated. I would be more than happy to share that with u if you would like. just email me.

Thanks so much all for the feedback. I feel a bit unsure about winter sowing, but it would take a huge burden off the indoor seed starting we are planning!

That list was only perennial...I actually hadn't considered wsing the annuals.

Cosmos is definitely on the annuals list, along with plants such as:
snapdragons
celosia
ageratum
annual rudbeckia
bachelor buttons
statice
strawflower
etc

Hm...I was planning on placing a seed order for the annuals in early spring, but maybe I will add them to my fall order and try out a few.
Thanks ALL!

Allysum is easy to spirkle out and it comes easy outside in spring. I WS for the first time this yr. and Iam in Mi. zone 5, I was successful for ,peren. Butterfly bush,cone flower,lily's,coriopsis,aster,few clematis,all from the seed exchange here. I will try again next yr. with my milk jugs in a laundery basket, I cut slits in them and fill with nice soil and poke holes in jugs and basket so dont fly away off deck all winter. about half of each jug worked out. some delpeniums did well also. Sorry I spell terrable.

Thanks for mentioning the laundry basket. I have been wondering who to keep my milk jugs from getting blown around, disrupted, etc. I can see nestling them into a laundry basket could help with that.

phlowerpower - you can also run a bamboo pole/stake through the handles of the milk jugs to hold them in place when the winter winds howl. Last year was my first to winter sow too & that's what I did. The jugs stayed in place and anchored the ones behind them--I had them lined up 8 deep along the sides of my breezeway.

In my garden, poppies and lupines do better if I direct sow in the fall. Rodents must enjoy the lupine seeds because I sowed 500 and did not have that many sprouts. I'd save some of the lupine seeds for spring sowing as well, but sow before the last cold/snow spell.

Lupines hate disrupted roots.

Direct sowing is SO much easier for this lazy cottage gardener;)... I found wsing SO much easier then growing under lights and am now trying to find even easier methods to create the wonderful gardens!!

I pushed the direct sowing in 2010 (planting 500 ws jugs in 2009 took 4 months and my kids were irritated) and see that, for me, some seeds must be ws and some must be grown under lights.

Here, bachelor buttons, the more common gaillardias and cosmos reseed. Also, nigella and French marigolds are nearly weed like but easy to pluck out. Weed-like plants are easy to direct sow, but some need fall sowing to get the winter chill.