some can over winter.. others are winter killed ...

its really hard.. to go much beyond that... with no list of plants you are interested in ...

and which can and do ... is very zone dependent .... anything that does so.. in zones colder than you ... will do good for you ...

also ... there is the vermin issue .... many things that do winter over... come up in spring.. if there is snow cover ... but if not.. the birds mice, etc.... can forage and destroy the crop of seeds ... this isnt a real problem.. if last years plants dropped 50 million seed ... but if you are going out there ... and dropping 10 seeds.... you may not have a lot of success ...

have you looked into the winter sowing forum??? ....

ken

ps: the other problem... in the olden days ... was that no one sold seed in fall ... so even if you wanted to do it... you had no source for purchase ... unless you spent the summer harvesting and storing them .... of course.. with the web ... you can get whatever you want.. whenever ...

pps: i dont know why you have to wait for a frost ... you can sow .. when the plant self sows .... it a good sign when its dropping its own seed ... which means any time in fall .. IMHO ....

As stated above, it depends on the seed. That said, my annual poppies, celosia, petunias and zinnias self seed so those would be fine.

tj

Here is a link to a list of annuals that might work for this:

http://faq.gardenweb.com/discussions/2766877/hardy-annuals-for-winter-sowing

When I know an annual self sows in my area I pull up a plant with seeds and tap it on the ground in areas I want that annual to grow the next year.

As others have stated the amount of seed that survives to germinate will vary from year to year. For me annual poppy seeds mostly disappear so I end up with only a few scattered poppies. Now I throw poppy seed down in March and have had to remind myself to sow them thinly as seems every seed sown in March germinates.

if I want to be certain to have an annual I either start seeds inside or winter sow ( see the Winter Sowing forum).

Thank you, everyone, for these answers. Looks like I have a new adventure coming up in the next month or so.

There's a forum on here called winter sowing. You might find some relevant info there too.

I winter sow hardy annuals like poppies, petunias, snapdragons and larkspur. Very easy to do. Save your gallon milk containers - it's the best method to do this. Head over to the winter sowing forum for details.