The link in my posting above is wrong. I was sure that I used the Burpee Viola Blackjack link and now I can't find that link anymore on Burpee. It has been changed to the king Henry Viola - cornuta My photos pertain the Burpee, which has a better germinate rate then the Botanical Interests. When I grew the prince john I got exactly one plant, that did not even look like the correct plant. The johnny jumps up which are also posted a photo earlier are viola tricolor and the ones I was trying to grow are viola cornuta. Someone else commented that the link was wrong, but now it's really wrong, I don't know why it keep changing. But, I just got those seeds at Lowes Osh or home depot, so it may be possible to find them out there in the racks if one wanted to try the same flowers. One can also buy johnny jump up seeds but those are viola tricolor. Here is a link that might be useful: Johnny Jump Up defintion wikipedia

Enjoyed the links posted here. Here's my own 2 cents on this. I do all the seeding for a CSA (about 70 boxes per week), sow about 300 lettuce seeds a week for 7 months straight. The first and second year made many mistakes and got poor germination. Putting lettuce trays on heat mats did reduce greatly the germination rate. Putting the trays in a unheated hoop house also didn't work, it got too hot during the day. Now we just leave them outside. In spring gets down to 45F at night, maybe 55F during day. We use automatic overhead sprinklers, so the trays get over watered every day. Our seedling table must provide water for all the seedlings so must water enough for the largest plants. To prevent damping off, use a 1:1 perlite:peat mix (Black Gold seedling mix) with some sifted compost included 4:1 mix:compost. The overall mix is light and airy. A coir based mix didn't work, stayed too wet. Use only solid fertilizers, liquid ones get washed away with the overwatering. For the mix, I add in crabshell meal (Eliot Coleman recommendation), greensand, and soft phosphate. When I added in bloodmeal or fish meal to the mix I got damping off. To much available nitrogen. When the seedlings are about an inch tall, I sprinkle a mixture of bloodmeal and sifted compost over them. This gives them the needed nitrogen and once an inch high, I've never had any damping off. To save time I never tap the seeds into the mix. After filling the tray with mix, just drop/bang the tray against the table 4 times to get the mix to settle to a good firmness. Put the seeds on top and add a layer of fine vermiculite and overhead water. The fine vermiculite layer noticeably increased our germination rate on all seeds. Keeps the top moist and more importantly protects an emerged seedling from fungus. The vermiculite is sterile.

Knowing the origin of the plant helps. Tropical plants rarely (if ever) need any sort of a cold period to germinate, which is sometimes a method to coax an older seed to germinate. If the seed has a hard shell (which I believe PoB does), it doesn't hurt to nick and soak for 24 hours or so. Patience will serve you well too, as older seeds sometimes will take longer to germinate. Do your research (online or in books, or asking questions here was good too :), and they should tell you what the seeds like for germinating. If the seeds have a short shelf life, then there's not much you can do to make them germinate, except plant them and pray. Sometimes they will surprise you. I got one Corydalis lutea seedling from a bunch of two-year-old seeds, which is quite amazing for corydalis. The baggie method will give you the versatility to experiment a bit, like relocating to a light or dark place, giving it cold for a controlled period of time, or putting it on the fridge, etc., so it's probably the best method if you keep a close eye on it for fungal growth and such.

Hi Maria! I am not sure which seedling it is. It was from ebay as mixed seeds so I'm not sure what they are. I got it after I killed all the one a member on here gave me. It was my first time germinating anything and I killed it by either over watering or under watering them. Even the ones I got from ebay they all died except for 1 so hopefully I don't kill it too. Adenium seeds - I got from the same person on ebay as mixed seeds too. I figure why not experiment and try to grow them. So far the adenium loves me they are growing except for a few that will eventually die. Thank you so much for offering me some seeds. I will PM you. Thank you, Ann