The species of cyclamen makes a great difference. Coum and hederifolium need no special treatment. Purpurascens requires soaking and darkness unless you don't mind how long it takes to germinate. I have posted the results of my cyclamen germination tests several times on Cyclamen-L. The seeds were bought from the Cyclamen Society, which I received in October. I didn't bother to test hederifolium as I had no need to buy any seeds. (It produces masses of seedlings in the garden, even right on top of the parent corms, so it obviously does not need dark to germinate.) The temperature was between 15 and 17 C. The seeds were in a peat- based compost in small plastic bags so I could observe as soon as they germinated. If I had enough seeds for the test, I did this: soaked/light, soaked/dark, unsoaked /light, unsoaked/dark coum - no difference. They all germinated between 17 and 22 days (I've had coum from Cyclamen Society seed bloom 8 months from the time I sowed them.) purpurascens and repandum: soaking and darkness made a definite difference (but repandum album behaved very differently from plain repandum: unsoaked/light 27 days) *** purpurascens: soaked/dark 21 days, unsoaked/dark 38 days, soaked/light 49 days, unsoaked/light 83 days --------------------------------------------- If I didn't have many seeds, I didn't soak, but tested for light and dark. mirabile, graecum, intaminatum, persicum no difference creticum and cilicium did better in the dark (cilicium germinated in 22 days in the dark, and not until 31 days in the light) I don't consider the difference is worth changing my usual seed sowing practice, however. Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada On 22-May-10, at 10:15 AM, gentiaan bulborum wrote: > I don't agree with no soaking > after a lot of test from the cyclamen society it seems to be the > best with > dried seeds give them a soak and keep them completely dark > between 14°C and 16°C till they germinate