When to sow
The best sowing time in temperate Australia is Autumn to early Winter when the weather has cooled down. In a garden situation many can also be sown later in winter or even early spring, however, the flowering season is usually shorter.
In semi tropical and alpine climates they can be sown in Spring.
If you have had success in growing other plants from seed then we probably can't tell you much, other than to pay close attention to sowing depth and slugs and snails. If, on the other hand you have not grown from seed before - read on.

Sowing Direct
Prepare the ground by removing any weeds, coarse mulch or other debris.
Water to wet the soil, using a wetting agent if necessary, and leave for a week or so to allow weed seeds to germinate before raking again to remove the weed seedlings and leave small furrows on the surface.
Mix the seed with spreading agent such as dry sand, sawdust or dried coffee grounds, water the soil again and scatter the mix sparingly over the area on a still day.
Be very careful when raking the seeds in because many may finish up too deep in the soil where they may not germinate because they do not get a light trigger. Our best results have come from a gentle and thorough watering instead which locks the seeds to the soil but doesn't bury them. In their natural environment these seeds germinate on, or very close to, the surface.
The area should then be kept moist until the seeds have germinated.
We strongly recommend controlling slugs and snails within a few days of sowing by whatever method suits you best. Slugs, snails and slaters are particularly fond of emerging seedlings cleaning them up every night and making it seem that the seeds didn't germinate.

Pre-treatment
None of our range require any pretreatment.

Germination
Germination times are listed for each variety. Please note that some take much longer than others.
Under natural circumstances only a proportion of seed will germinate. This is a mechanism that ensures that if there is a good start to the season but it later dries off quickly, there will still be some seed left in the soil for the future. One of the consequences of cultivating these plants is that we have selected for first year germination and thus raised that proportion. Despite this not all the seeds will germinate the first year.

Fertilisers
These plants have evolved to make the most of every opportunity. They respond to fertiliser by growing very rapidly, but the growth is usually soft, floppy and easily damaged.
If you have reasonably good soil we recommend not using any fertiliser at all or, at the most, just using a few granules of a general purpose, controlled release fertiliser. We recommend against the use of blood and bone or specially formulated native plant fertilisers.

Watering
Under natural circumstances in the bush these plants grow and survive on natural rainfall only. In order to ensure at least a few seeds for the future, they very quickly send up a single flowering stem. If the season then dries off the flower rapidly goes to seed adding to the already dormant seeds in the soil. However, if there is follow up rain or if there is still plenty of moisture in the soil, they continue growing and send up more flowering stems. We can capitalise on this in the garden by watering later into the season which may extend flowering by several weeks. One really hot day though usually triggers the seeding process.

Pests
These plants are susceptible to many of the common pests that are experienced with other garden plants including aphids, thrips, slugs, snails, caterpillars, grasshoppers, small children, dogs and opportunistic flower pickers.