Where do you buy your seed at?
i'm looking for some seed for spring germination. any ideas
besides richters? johnny select seeds. bakers acre. I'd like to come across some really neat varieties, like variagated collumn basil.
etc...
unusual basil varieties
Horizon Herbs or Territorial -- don't have the sites on hand, but you could google them.
thanks we'll do
kathy
How about the Cooks Garden?
Thymegarden.com carries 28 varieties of basil seed.
oooohhh.....
I'll be doing some basil seed offers again after the holidays -- I have a couple that I didn't have last year, and I harvested lots of my favorite pesto basil from Italy, but I didn't get many seeds from some this year due to the early frost. I'm thinking I'll post about the basil here, or at least make sure I put a link here to the trading thread...
Must check out those 28 varieties!! Thanks for the tip!
Ja, shoor, yabetcha...
I've finally harvested some mammoth basil seeds If anyone wants some. Lots of chaf included though! (first time saved!)
I rarely save basil see wihtout all the chaff LOL it's almost impossible. one would have nothing more to do in life but remove chaff to have clean basil LOL
have a great christmas
kathy
Hey Kathy, I'm soooo glad you said that!! Happy crimbo
Anybody come across any really cool basil varieties??
I was intrigued by the 'New Gineau' and the 'Baja' basils on the thymegarden.com site.... Has anyone ordered from them? I'm curious about what they consider a "generous amount" of seed.... The reports on Watchdog sound promising (only mixed reviews were on plant orders), but nobody commented on amounts. I'd only need a little pinch to try... LOL... Then again, the more I browse their site, the more I think that I might have to place an order anyway!
Two good new-to-me varieties last year were both small-leafed compact basils. 'Greek Basil' had a delicious, strong, peppery flavor to it, definitely no ordinary basil. The plants grew to at least 18 inches tall and wide in my garden (probably would've been smaller in a container) and had an almost perfect globe shape. 'Window Box Basil' (a Renee's Garden selection) had a "standard" but very nice basil flavor, with a nice form to the plants... a little looser and a little larger-leafed than 'Minette', which I think is still my favorite windowbox basil.
I'm trying a Cameo Basil that I got from Renee's this year. It's a large leaf compact one, so far so good. I like large leaves so I'll be interested in just how compact this is. I liked the description she had on her website though. It's coming along nicely.
I bought 3 or 4 of them, let me go see what they are
basil:
napoletano
ararat
fino verde
I've tried the fino verde, and it had a really nice flavor but got taller and leggier than I'd have liked (not unlike the way 'Spicy Globe' grows for me)... I think it probably needs to be pinched early and often!
I like the description of 'Ararat'.... hmmm, another one to try.... :-)
Critter, I ordered from Thymegarden.com last year and they send a decent amount of seed, plus a free packet if your order is over 18.50 if I recall. Everything I ordered from them and planted germinated well. They have lots of cool stuff.
I'm still using seed I have from last year, so no new seed orders yet this year. I just planted some Purple and Genovese tonight.
~Sunny.
Good to know -- thanks!
I've purchased some of their seeds through a gardening company that carries a number of their packets, and have had good success.
In particular, I'm very interested in growing lemon savory this year. Thyme Garden is one of the very few places that carries it. I'll post the results later this year.
I have some plants that are tagged "Greek Columnar Basil"- I got it at a local health food market. This is the most delicious, aromatic best flavored basil I have ever grown. It has not gone to seed for me yet, but cuttings root in 2 days! I intend to never be without this one! It grows quite tall, but very strong, unlike regular basil. If I ever get seeds I will post. Meanwhile, if anyone is willing to pay for priority mail, I would be willing to send some cuttings- I think during this cool weather, they would travel well. Any adventurous herb growers out there? I live in Florida, by the way.
Jo, I wish I had known that yesterday. MollyMc lives in Archer and just mailed a bix box to me Priority and some cuttings could have gone in there. Maybe I can squeeze out postage this week but I won't know until tomorrow when the plumber comes. (I shut off my water this morning due to a leak under the house.)
Now that I have researched Greek Columnar Basil a bit I read that it does not bolt to seed, so I guess cuttings would be the best way to share it.
Yep, cuttings is the only way to get this plant unless you buy the plant, I hope I find some this summer, or spring, I've never propigated basil before. not sure how it would do.
Basil is very easy to start by putting cuttings in a glass of water... just strip off any leaves that would otherwise be in the water, and change the water every day... you'll have roots within 10 days, often sooner, and then you just stick the rooted cutting into a small pot and plant it out when it has filled that pot with roots.
cool, kind of like coleus then ha?
kathy
Yes, actually very much like propagating coleus!
That columnar greek basil does sound cool... it's far too cold here now to be sending anything other than seeds, but I may just have to try to tempt Jo into trading later in the year if she still has enough to share! :-)
Thanks Critterologist for the great tip on rooting the cuttings! Basil is one of my favorite herbs. I'm designing a flower/herb bed and I think perhaps the columnar greek basil is going to have a place in it!
You're welcome... Have fun with your new garden bed!
Regarding my Greek Columnar Basil- I will take requests for cuttings and file them for a little later when the plants are more actively growing. I have decided to send 3 cuttings per priority envelope- I take Paypal, so if you want to be included, just send me $5- ( to jomparrott@cox.net )that will be $4.05 for shipping and a bit for my gas to the P.O.! I should have quite a bit, but not an unlimited supply. At some point I will have to cut off the offer. Jo
Jo, I'd like to be the first, but that $5 doesn't account for your Paypal fees, does it?
I just stumbled onto a website where I could spend a lot of money on herbs and seeds, papagenos.com. I haven't purchased anything yet but they have a great rating in the watchdog http://davesgarden.com/gwd/c/40/. They have lots of basils and other herbs, and more scented geraniums than I would have guessed even existed. Who knew there was a coconut scented thyme?
Just FYI, 'Coconut' thyme is very pretty, dark shiny green, and forms a nice dense very low growing mat.... but I don't think it has much scent of any kind, at least not the one that I've seen at DeBaggio's. It's a pretty one, but I didn't want you to order it and be disappointed when it didn't smell like coconut.
Your right on the coconut thyme, It's not scented coconut scent, and it's an ornamental thyme.
Papa genos is a great place to buy herbs from, They fix their errors, and make their customers happy, i've bought several times from them.
Join their email list and you'll be notified when they have specials, and their good specials too. can get some great deals on pelargoniums and such .
I've had good luck with Mountain Valley Growers, too.
I have ordered from them too, shipping is extremely high, they never told me what shipping wouldb e till I got the bill and it was over 30 . in shipping charges for l5.00 of plants. Just so you know.
sure wish DeBaggio's would do mail order. I like Mountain Valley. Kathy_Ann, did you complain about the shipping? that seems outrageous.
I did complain about shipping, I called them, and they said, they had to pay their packers something. ha! I told her I wouldn't come back and I also told her I'd leave feedback on the garden watch dog, and asked if she knew what garden watch dog was all about, she said do what you have to do. I don't know if I ever left feedback for her or not, but I haven't been back, they do have fantastic plants, but never again. It's horrid to take advantage of your customers like they did on shipping charges.
I agree -- I can see adding a small handling charge above the actual cost of shipping to pay for packing and packaging, but that's way too much. Actually, with mail order places I would rather have them build the handling charge into the price of the item or at least be really up front about the amount so I'm not surprised when I take my shopping cart to the checkout page... I get so annoyed when I have to wait until I've entered all my shipping and payment information before I can find out if the shipping and handling is more than I'm willing to pay... and I really don't understand not telling you about it at all when you place your order!
I agree with you there . what we don't know won't hurt us LOL. They told me that they don't know the shipping charges till they get ready toship, ha!!
Reading this thread now has me salivating to try lemon savory...
We grew 5 kinds of basil last year; some from Territorial, from Cook's Garden, and some starts from local nurseries, and yee-hah, my Genovese basil (basic pesto plant) seed starts worked great last year!
Sad to hear of surprises on high shipping from some growers; places like Annie's Annuals that do all their propagating in 4" pots, take extra good care in shipping, and it costs enough to make the annual "field trip" out to Richmond worthwhile if you're within 50 miles or so, yet there's no question that it's worth every penny, plus things are guaranteed, and there are No Surprises about costs: I think that makes all the difference in the world for whether I'm willing to order some rare thing from any place by mail, or to see if the local nursery who gets stock in from various places will get it in, or if I'll keep looking for seeds and try my hand at propagating.
I got my basil seed from parkseed and Burpees. Both germinated and grew just fine I've been harvesting the same seed for years and I am now looking for some new varieties. Any ideas?
Sheeba, welcome to DG! Dmail me and I'll set you up with some different varieties for SASBE.
I'm trying to catch up on lots of things just now, so my apologies for not yet having posted a general SASBE offer of basil seeds this year... I've just been including them in trades or offering them rather randomly. I need to print up some more seed packet labels, and then I'll post a thread.