The first seeds I tried were nicotiana sylvestris, which were incredibly easy and gave me dozens of 5-6'tall strongly scented stocks of white flowers in late summer. Many of these have reseeded, so they are a permanent fixture now. I just used a dome covered tray (so I didn't have to water often) on a bright windowsill.
If you don't like any hassle, you might try wintersowing, which mainly works for perennials or somewhat hardier annuals. I started with wintersowing lupins and foxgloves and now have drifts of these flowers.
Now I mainly grow hard-to-find or expensive plants from seed (species peonies and cyclamen). Cyclamen are simple and because they like it cool, I start them in late fall or early winter under a single light purchased for $20 from Home Depot and strung up from nails in our unfinished basement. I can easily grow 40 or so cyclamen with little effort, which would cost me close to $400 to purchase as plants. Tubers cost less than plants, but the the success rate is low because they don't like to be dried out.

I'm presently sowing lupines, periennial poppies, annual poppies, winterberry, ipomoea sunrise serenade, 4 0'clocks, Common thrift, delphiniums, white chiffon rose of sharon, Jack in the pulpit, bunny tail grass, and more to come when I've got the time the next few months. All wintersown during these cold Ontario months.

You might want to check out the Winter sowing forum on our gardenweb. I've been wintersowing these past two years and I've had great success with this "no-brainer" way of growing seeds. It amazes me that such a simple system really works! Much better than lights indoors! Go to the forum and look at the many varieties of seeds (periennials, annuals and tropicals, herbs, vegetables, you name it...)the members from all different zones on the wintersowing website grow.

I'll add the link below.

great gardening!

Here is a link that might be useful: winter-sowing forum

If you have florescent lights in your basement, perhaps you could start some species that germinate in cooler temps.
Most annuals need to start warm but there are those that need to have a cool period. Snaps, delphiniums, alliums, poppies, etc. Do a google search & I'm sure you'll find some annuals that you can start in pots in between your tropical plants under lights in your basement!
I have seeds if interested.
sam

If you want to grow annual seeds inside, which can't be wintersown, buy a couple of those windowsill kits and place in south-facing windows. I've been doing this for years with, I'll admit, not great success. I always start seeds too early. I think that if you're trying to grow seeds w/o lights, it's better to wait until April. The light is stronger and longer by then. One intractable problem I've had with wintersowing is racoons--they pry open whatever covered trays I put outside and make a huge mess. They're lucky they're cute!

I love to wintersow seeds..and it helps me fight the winter blues. There's something uplifting about planting seeds in January :)

Inside..I'm trying to grow 3 Corkscrew vines. One is up about 2" tall and is just sitting there looking cute...but I noticed that it actually has a pair of tiny leaves..so it's looking good :))
The other two showed no signs of life...so I dug up the seeds and found that they have both germinated...so now I just have to wait. I'm so looking forward to seeing these babies grow. Patience is a virtue that I need to work on...LOL

Inside...I overwintered a Jasmine vine and a Passiflora. They are both looking good and are putting out new growth.

I think everyone should investigate the winter sowing thread. It is so easy and so successful that anyone can do it :))

I don't wintersow - no way, no how, will I go outside any more than I absolutely have to!

I start a ton of seeds inside under a fluorescent shop light. I find that even a sunny window isn't nearly as good as my lights. I will probably be setting it up this weekend to get a few of my slower seeds going. You can get one set up for less than $30, and I use one of those thin foil emergency thermal blankets all around it to reflect more light. I also leave them on 24 hours a day, and I rotate my seeds in and out every 12-16 hours. That way I can start more than I normally could.

I do already have about a dozen sorts of seeds in the fridge, and a bunch more that are going to be tossed in the fridge soon. Darned if I can't remember what they are though! I guess I'd better go check to see what I'm growing this year!

BP