I've never used darkness for pansies, and they germ just fine, barely covered, shady cool spot. If in doubt, I suppose you could cover flat w/damp newspaper or some such. Patty

I too have never had any luck germinating them. Do they need a cold spell? I had them good fortune one year to find the most amazing pansy seed colors at a big lots, but they just did not come up. I put all the seed in the dirt so I had none left to try again. I no longer do that. I try a few only in if they germinate, great I have seed for the next time. or at least to try another method. flora

Hello,
I've never set out to germinate pansies, but year before last, I neglected to pull out the pansies in my flower boxes. They went to seed, and sure enough, pansies popped up all over the garden area near the boxes. At first I thought they were weeds and started pulling them out. They came up again this year, and were blooming in the snow in February! So, I guess they can't be too difficult to grow, and probably don't require darkness? They seem to be speading after I let the new ones go to seed last year instead of pulling them out when they look tired. Shelley

All this talk about fall-sowing and self-sowing is making me think we sometimes work at it alot harder than we need to! It is certainly making me rethink some of my methods.