I have great luck with them,I fill my cell packs with soil,water well,sow seeds on top and cover lightly with peat moss.I take a spray bottle,and dampen the tops,and then put the cell packs into a shoe box,on top of a kitchen cabinet.I wait about 3 days and start checking on them.Make sure they are moist,and usually within a week they are all germinated and then they get put under lights.I find these are one of the easiest to start,if germinated in the dark.

Are these pelargoniums or hardy germaniums?

Molly, do you cover the shoe box with plastic wrap or anything till they sprout?

Only one person has asked the right question. Please clarify whether you are growing hardy perennials Geraniums or tender "annual" Pelargonium Geraniums. Germination and care is totally different.

mammie
No,I do not cover the box with plastic,just close the lid.Now,these are the annual geraniums I am talking about,not perennial Cranesbill.

Do not know anything about geraniums but the seed package says "dwarf florist" an annual. I followed the package directions and started in moist seed starter mix in butter tray-covered seed with 1/4" of starter- misted and covered with plastic lid and put on top of freezer for warmth. The single plant out of about 20 seeds that did come up is under lights and doing fine. Package said packed for 2006 by ferry-morse seed co. Have planted the rest of the package to see if any will come up but due to my lack of knowledge thought there might be something I am missing? They do not need light to germinate do they? Thanks for any advice you all may offer.

Germination should be fairly easy. All they really need is warmth and humidity, ideally about 75F and 100% humidity from a plastic cover. Light may be helpful and is certainly necessary once they sprout.

Its hard to know what temperature it gets to on top of your freezer, but if it stays somewhere between about 65F and 80F and only one seed came up in a month then the seed was probably bad.

I have had great luck sprouting hard to germinate seeds by putting the trays on top of my furnace.I put something under the container like a grate or anything that keeps the seed container ( usually a plastic tomato box)from touching the surface. I have had coleous .sprout in less than a week ditto for basil. This is a gas furnace and I leave the lite on and the door open.