Don't the seed companies do a lot of the pre-chilling etc. in advance for
you so the inexperienced gardener can just sow the seeds without the fuss?

I recently sowed a couple of seed trays of oriental poppies. One tray was
from a free packet with GW magazine, and the other tray was from my own
seed, straight from the plant. The GW seed germinated within days but my own
seed took weeks to get started.