It depends on the plant, I would imagine.

I want to start some agastache cana, columbine, chocolate daisy, gaura, lamb's ear, and flowering tobacco seeds.

Thanks so much Wantonamara, you were a wealth of information. So with the CD, sow it now in a 4 inch pot and plant it in Winter? Or should I wait until Spring? I guess I'll direct sow the columbines. I'll just sow the seeds in a pot because of the bad clay soil here. I'll probably just go ahead and direct sow the agastache seeds at least a few of them because I definitely don't want them to rot in damp soil in a winter sowing jug. I also had a question about echium Red Feathers too? Thanks so much for your help Wantonamara you saved me from unnecessary work and possible failure.

Many wildflowers get their start in fall. One can always throw a towel over them during the BAD cold fronts if you feel they are too young and delicate. I do my germinating in 4" pots. The columbine I start in pots, not in the ground. Oops, I did not make myself clear there. They do volunteer a bit in my columbine patch , but my ground is so dry that it is slow going and not always dependable. Sometimes I scarify things if I find info online that says too, but otherwise, I am a person that uses simple methods. I have some penstemon in the fridge now. I should take them out and try them in this warm weather. It has been about a month. I have not done the red echium. Is that the Russian echium?

Interesting that Agastache is all over the place according to variety.

Agastache germination table

Thanks for being clearer. So if I sow them in 4" pots now I should plant them later in Fall or keep them in containers and cover them when it gets really cold? The echium seeds I have are aoneum(?) It's native to California I think? I don't see agastache cana on the link you sent but I guess I could start them with the chocolate daisy and other seeds? Would I need to do cold stratification if I start now?

Check the charts. Some say it in days and some say it in soil temperatures. I sow most of them now. Some seeds like poppies and larkspur go in November. Weather will cold start them naturally if you do them now. Sometimes I will halve or third the seeds and stagger the planting if I am feeling unsure.

another trick is to google " propagating (scientific name) or germinating (scientific name) and I will get more information.

My info has E amoenum as native to the Caucuses and naturalizing in California

E. amoenum 'red feathers'

You're right about the amoenum it had been awhile since I looked up info. I use google a lot but there's so much conflicting information. I have some poppy seeds now I know when to plant them. I think either tomorrow or Sunday I'll start the columbine, agastache, chocolate daisy and echium seeds. Thanks so much for your help and information. I bookmarked the links you sent because they're very useful.

Yes they are useful. They are high up in my seed folder of bookmarks, before all my favorite seed companies. I usually do a google feast of everything before I plant even if I have already done it. The echium is a biennial or short lived perennial so I think it is good for sowing now.

I like using the Lady Bird Johnson wildflower page. I used it to identify seedling stages of Plains coreopsis and gaillardia. I wish the echium was a permanent plant, hopefully it will reseed?

They say that it reseeds readily. It has naturalized in California.

That's good news at least. I like to plant things that can hold their own in my garden. I need to move my Russian sage to my sunnier flowerbed because I haven't watered it at all this year and it's still alive. I got some Rose Pink salvia greggii on clearance for a $1 the other week so I planted those by my Turk's Cap and Rock rose plant.

Wantonamara I looked today and my agastache cana and chocolate daisy seeds germinated. It took them 5 days to germinate. It's too wet to check and see if the gaura, lamb's ears, and echium seeds germinated.

Very cool!

I'll move them to more sun later.