Experienced Chaste and Desert Willow Growers - HELP

I have seeds for Vitex Agnus-chastus and Desert Willow. Does someone know how to plant/germinate these? I am specifically looking for depth to sow, temp requirements, days to germination, growth rate; but other info would be greatly appreciated as well. Thanks alot. Stacey

This site has some info on both...I'm including the link to the page that has Vitex since it does have some special conditions http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/SeedlistU-V.htm They also have Chilopsis listed so you can look it up if you want to, but all it says is it takes 1-4 wks for it to germinate, no info on what the best conditions are for germination (although if it needs heat or cold or something special to help it along they usually mention that, so I'm assuming since they don't mention anything on this one that there's nothing special that it needs)

Thanks Ecrane3; I'll try the cold treatment with the Vitex and start the Chilopsis indoors in a bright South window and see if that works. :)

We have dozens of cut-leaf chaste tree seedlings popping up every spring under the tree. That tells me that wintersowing will work just fine. I have a some seeds I'm going to try starting indoors this year, to see if I can adjust the long tap root they have. The ones under the tree transplanted well for me, also, so if you have a garden spot, you may want to put some out there now. Of course, I'm in Michigan, so the weather's a bit different. This tree is either in 5b or 6a, and may have a microclimate around it. It's a bit sheltered.

I hope that helps.

I may try putting a few out there and see if they make it. But I have experienced some problems with winter sowing here (others have too) because our weather is so erratic. We had 70-80 weather this weeks speckled with a couple of nights at 20-30 days at 40-50. My husband was outside working in his t-shirt yesterday, but in the next few days we'll be getting a cold snap from that arctic front moving South. I checked some of my winter sowing of milkweeds a couple of days ago to find that they had sprouted, of course only to die the next night when it hit 20F. So I have found winter sowing here to be sorta hit and miss and maybe not such a great investment of time or seed, at least for me.
Thanks for the info on the tap root - didn't even think about that. So when I start them I'll make sure I have a good depth for them to start in or I could just keep them in the fridge and then plant them direct outside after danger of frost is past. Yeah planting direct is sounding better; then I won't have to deal with transplanting with a long taproot. :)

When I transplanted the 2 month or less old seedlings, they were about 4 inches above ground, and more than that below. I made the roots go off to the side when I replanted them, which made moving them later on much easier. I recently read about growing an herb with a long taproot, where they placed a board underneath about a foot underground. The root hit that, and went sideways, making digging the normally 3 ft taproot much easier. You could do something similar with the chaste tree. I don't know if air pruning them will make a difference or not, but I imagine that would be another way to control the tap root length.

For some of my wintersown areas, I have a few pop bottles with the bottoms cut out, sometimes with a few side pieces at points. When an unwanted cold snap comes, I cover them like a mini-greenhouse. Seems to be working so far, but it isn't tested much.

Plants with taproots always a challenge. Milkweeds the same way and finicky about being moved. The board idea is interesting - but you wouldn't know already which way it was heading; I guess you'd just have to dig around until you found it.

Thanks for the very useful info. :)