Hi
This might help

http://www.meconopsis.org/pages/cultivate3.html#raisingseed

I believe in sowing seeds as soon as possible, ideally fresh off the plant as your mec. seeds might be. If you have enough seeds why not sow some now and keep some for sowing later.
Keep the pot moist, but not too wet and in the shade then let it freeze when the cold weather comes, if it ever does. If they germinate quickly then a cold frame over winter would be good ready for potting on next spring.

Thanks, Steve, I am sure that I had come across that article and it does contain good info. What has confused me is the fact that I saw the gardener on the Beechgrove sowing his seed now - which really puzzled me. I have contacted the show and got some in fo back from them but it really related to seeds from the plant and not packet seed.

Thanks, Bulbaholic. I saw a response that you made to someone on a similar question here back in 2009 and found that useful. I think you may be going down the route that I am now considering. I can get another packet of seed and try sowing later in the season should this effort fail.

My plan now is to stick the packet of seed in the fridge for 3 weeks (although I am still not sure if that is really necessary with packet seed), then sow on a tray filled with compost but covered in grit. That should let the seeds filter down into the compost with watering. This was the method used by The Beechgrove.

A little update on this.

I worked with 3 different sets of seeds.

Thomson & Morgan seeds
Premier Seeds Direct seeds
Some from a friend's plant

I sowed the T&M seeds and the ones from a friendly gardener on the 31 July in a propagator. Sowing them on top of gravel and John Innes seed compost. I did not put them in the fridge. Placed them in a shady place in the garden behind some hedges.

Today I noticed that the T&M seeds have germinated. But not the friend's seeds.

I placed the Premier seeds in the fridge for a fortnight as they directed. Sowing those on 16 August in a propagator in the same location.

We will see how the seeds develop from now.