The seeds arrived in 25 days and looked good. There are quite a few varieties as the seeds do look different, however the differences will most likely be visible when they mature. I am quite new to both cacti and growing plants from seed, but from the reaserch I've done it's easy to get them to germinate. What I have done is I took a food containers that has a transparent lid. Then I microwaved a very light soil mix to make sure all the pathogens were gone. You don't need a lot of soil for your container, I put about .5 of an inch. I sprayed it ,with a spray bottle that had filtered water in it, just enough for the top of the soil to be moist. Then I sprinkled a few seeds on top of the soil and put the lid on. I have artificial lights and those may or may not have had an impact on the germination rate. I would say most if not all the seeds germinated maybe about 90%. Most germinated in the first week. After about two weeks I sprayed a little more water on top of the soil, but not on the cacti themselves.