I grew these last year. I found they didnt need any special treatment, just patience! The germination tends to be irregular to say the least and takes place over a long period of time.
I sowed on e batch of seed which seemed to do nothing for ages, so much so i tried a second batch. Then the seed of the first lot started to germinate!. To cut a long story short, I found these two sowings produced several seperate crops of seedlings and ended up with 'batches' of plants each at different stages of growth. And of course more than i really needed!
Geting th seed was strange. I the packet i sowed from was bought off T&M, but then a packet came free with amateur gardening magazine which we have a subscription to, so in hind sight I needn't have bothered buying any, as one packet was more than enough for my needs.
Re: Gardening Magazines, yes a lot of the 'to do' sections can be a little repetitive, but many of the mags also have other articles on garden and plants (plus the inevitable design articles), which are quite varied. I for one enjoy the articles on readers' gardens. They are often most inspirational. Celebrity gardeners' articles are good too.