In my **limited** experience with Gerbera Daisies (I only grow them every so often), the seeds are what I call "thumbnail" seeds. Each seed has to be individually "thumbnailed" (pressed between my thumbnail and the pad of one of my fingers) before it gets set on the "good" side of the plate. Same thing goes for Berlandiera lyrata, Echinacea, Zinnia, Tithonia rotundifolia, Ptilotus etc., etc.
I can't begin to remember how many times I received nice, fat packs of Rudbeckia maxima with nary a viable seed. (I suspect the birds beat the gardeners to the seeds.) I lucked out in last year's trade and received a packet with **gasp** nine plump seeds that all germinated like they'd been shot out of a cannon
I really appreciate the information about Calendula seeds. They're nice self-sowers here (original plants came from a friend), and I don't recall ever growing them from seed.
