Amazing year for germinating seedlings!

Can't get my head round it. Some of the seeds that I've sowed have had a poor germination rate despite keeping them in a cool place over winter - some of them were only last year's (not parsnips - just sowed some of this year's ones). In my garden, however, I've never seen so many seeds germinate - mostly tons of weeds and sycamore but also years of accumulated forget-me-nots, primulas, hellebores, foxgloves - far more than usual. I also seem to have aquired a spotted orchid, something that has a flower like a small tulip but the leaves lie down like a finished snowdrop, and a lonely fritillary in the middle of an herbaceous geranium. Is it me...

most of the seeds I've planted this year have come up (very quickly) 

Hmmmmm.....methinks using J.I. seed compost may be to blame for some as I think it may have been too "cold" for them. I have a mini greenhouse inside my cold glass one and kept a check on the temperature too. Out of 40-odd last year's phlox seeds I got one! We live and learn... but what is your secret...?