The best sites to purchase seeds???

Anyone know of any good sites to purchase seeds?? I'm not 100% on what I'm looking for, but was hoping to be pointed to some good sites (outside of DG that is). Oh, and by the way... I'm looking for sites that would ship in a timely manner. Thanks! :)

This message was edited Mar 17, 2009 1:16 PM

There's a nice feature here called the Garden Watchdog http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/ On the main page, you'll see a list of the "Watchdog 30", these are the top companies in the database. Not all of them sell seeds but some do and you definitely can't go wrong with any of them. Or if you want more options, scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see an area to search by category. There are a number of different categories for seeds (annuals, veggies, vines, etc) so pick one that looks interesting and it'll pull up a list of all the companies that sell that type of seeds. Once you have the page of search results, you can choose how to sort the results...I'd recommend sorting by rating, that way the best companies will wind up at the top.

Park Seeds is where I buy most of my seeds.

www.parkseed.com

I also buy from Parks, as well as from Burpee's http://www.burpee.com/category/ and also Johnny's Select Seeds http://www.johnnyseeds.com/ and Harris Seeds http://www.harrisseeds.com/ and Veseys http://www.veseys.com/ and Stokes Seeds http://www.stokeseeds.com/cgi-bin/StokesSeeds.storefront

I don't have any specific information on how quickly they fill orders because I usually send in my orders early and it isn't a critical issue with me.

ZM

I got mine from http://seedsavers.org/ and they're all coming up wonderfully. Seems to be a great company and on a coop, we got seeds even cheaper from them.

Oh! Also from http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6494059 I've gotten about 5 types so far and have been happy with them.

Stokes has a great selection: http://www.stokesseeds.com/

Ilike Pinetree seeds from Maine. Have been buying from them for years.I noticed they are having to wait 3 to 4 weeks to send an order right now i always order mine early.
http:// www.superseeds.com/

I will be buying all of my veggie seeds from Harris seeds. They are SUPER nice and helpful and were very quick to ship. I found seeds that I could not find anywhere else and they have reasonable shipping. Good prices too.

I really like Rene's Garden seed for my veggies. I usually buy them at local stores for half price in November. :))

This message was edited Apr 17, 2009 2:22 AM

Fedco: http://www.fedcoseeds.com/
They have an associated website, Moose Tubers, for potato sets, but I missed the deadline this year by just a few days, so no taters for me!

Pinetree has been mentioned: https://www.superseeds.com/

Artistic Gardens, home of the 35c seed pack: https://www.artisticgardens.com/catalog/

Evergreen seeds for Asian vegetables: http://www.evergreenseeds.com/

Park: http://www.parkseed.com/gardening/GP/homepage/page1

They're great for uncommon flower varieties.

I bought some seed from Burpee this year, and whoo! That stuff was expensive! After paying $4 and $5 a pack for seed (I didn't buy very much at that price) I was SHOCKED when the seed came in plain generic packets! When you pay premium prices for seed you expect at least a picture on the packet. At least I do. It's not like the 35c packs from Artistic Gardens.

Zen, you can still buy potatoes at www.potatogardening.com They have great variety and very reasonable shipping. They use flat rate. I just called to see if I could order some more and they are sending them right out to me. They are very nice and have very good prices compared to henryfield or gurnery. I buy my potatoes there every year.

Umm, when I click that link I get sent to an advertising site. Did a web search on potato gardening and could not find a retailer. Is it possibly something slightly differently spelled?

Zen,

Johnny's Selected Seed still has some varieties of seed potatoes in stock. I notice they are sold out of Yukon Gold.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/subcategory.aspx?category=1&subcategory=40&source=googlee_seed_potatoes&ct=hg&gclid=CJyumZaV-JkCFRLoxgod0G-RGA

I got quite a few "hits" on a Google search for "Seed Potatoes":

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=&as_epq=seed+potatoes&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images

ZM

Sorry! My bad! It is www.potatogarden.com This one will work! Promise!! :)

Got it. Rose Finn, Banana, Bison, and Yukon Gold on the way.

Thanks.

I moved here a couple years ago from MO, around Ava/Springfield. I miss my place there!

I have to ask you how you are in Ohio and in zone 8? I've lived in Cleveland (zone 5b) and Cincinnati (zone 6a) so I don't see how you could be zone 8? Just curious!

I was wondering about that, too. Surely global warming hasn't kicked in that much.

I got a very similar shipment. Rose Finn, Banana, yukon gold, yellow fin, purple majesty. What led you move away from MO? I don't know that I could ever leave. We are the sixth generation now to farm my husband's family farm on the Gasconade River.

I'm actually in WV, it's by the river, and it's a microclimate. It's probably more zone 7.5 than 8. The weather is very variable in the spring and all through the winter so average temps (which is what zones are based on) don't tell the whole story. I was still getting watermelon and tomatoes and peppers and beans - heck everything I planted except the zucchini, which succumbed to bacterial wilt - in October last year.

Try that in Zone 6!

I'm originally from Ohio, moved to Puerto Rico, Alabama, Oregon, then Missouri. Then my dad needed help. I was in school for grad work, applied to schools closer to my dad and got in to several, picked WV for a doctoral program. I was driving 12 hours every other weekend to help my dad from MO to OH, it was killing me. My useless sibs in the area couldn't be bothered to drive an hour and a half to help him once a year, let alone twice a month. Then when he fell, to keep him out of a nursing home, he moved to WV with me. My useless sibs got torqued off about that and stopped talking to him. Yes, the same ones who couldn't be bothered to drive an hour and a half to see him even once in 10 years accused me of "breaking up the family" because I agreed when my dad said he wanted to move in with me over being put in a home. This past week we found out his cancer is back, my brother who isn't a total dweeb called my older sister who is to tell her so, and her response was "As far as I'm concerned, he's already dead. He was dead to me when he moved to West Virginia".

I'm not bitter . . . but I think it's pretty obvious why I had to move away from MO, LOL!

I buy from Pinetree Garden Seeds, they have a great selection, prompt service and less expensive.

Ahh Zen, that is so great that your dad has you. I am so sorry to hear that he has cancer. How old is your father? I know what it is like to have dead-beat siblings. I am the youngest by seven years and when I was just 18 my parents had a will made that made me sole heir and executer of their estate. I am much like you, I value what my parents have done for me and I want to make sure they are cared for as they cared for me. I was 1 hour away from my mother and that was too far. I left my job as a game warden to move closer to home. Now I am a science teacher and actually MUCH happier with my job. What doctoral program are you enrolled in? I am almost done w/ M.S. in Education. I think I will stop there. I'm kinda tired of school. :) What led you to move to such different locations? Sorry I'm being nosy, I just find your story interesting.
Beautiful in MO today. Turkeys are gobbling and mushrooms are poking up. Found a couple dozen today to make w/ dinner.

Nikki

I buy heirloom vegetables from:

http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/

Incredible assortment, great prices and many cultivars which are unavailable elsewhere unless you join a seed saver's organization.

However....Glen and Linda make it clear they are not the place to go if you need anything shipped right now. They start taking orders after Christmas. Orders are filled in the order they came in. I order in January and it takes 3 to 4 weeks. Might be faster after the initial orders and the spring rush. They always throw in a few packs for free, the catalog is a useful reference and I've found the wait is inconsequential considering the value of what they offer.


Tomatoes I don't buy at Sandhill, I purchase at:

http://www.tomatogrowers.com/

Tomato Growers Supply also has a nice assortment of peppers and eggplants.

As Zen and others mentioned, Johnny's is very good. They are the only source I've found for De Ruiter's "Tango" eggplant seeds. Excellent cultivar (expensive but worth the price). Johnny's is especially useful for those who grow in a similiar climate to that of Maine. They sell to farmers who can't experiment around and must have a good crop.

Value Seeds is Thompson & Morgan's outlet store. All seeds are 99 cents or less. Shipping, no matter how many packs you order, is $1.99. Great place to pick up things to try:

http://www.valueseeds.com/?page=6

I was a defense contractor for about 15 years, hence the moving around. I tried private industry for awhile, didn't like that. I was working for Informix in OR, they were the #1 database company for many years and are now defunct because of Enron-like accounting practices. I left just before they crashed because I could see enough of what was going on to know it was bad news, also got tired of the attitude of many of the people I worked around regarding child-rearing and just how much time you owe the company.

They thought the SCHOOLS had the main responsibility for raising kids (I was actually told this in plain English after a school shooting in the area), and that you worked 6 days a week, 12 hours a day. Not me. Had a coworker actually tell me that it looked "unprofessional" for me to use part of my lunch hour to call my son and check on him, to which I replied, "Oh, but going out to drink your lunch IS professional?" Another comment, "Your son's what, 12 now? He seems real responsible. He could be left home on his own more." Ummmm, NO. If he seemed responsible, it's because he didn't get left on his own to struggle through making important decisions about behavior and ethics with no help from his parent.

So I dumped the rat race and moved to MO, bought some land and built a house. That's where I was when my Dad's situation went south.

He's 89. Started out by finding out my sister was leeching off him, taking all his money (younger sister). Had to kick her out of his apartment. I was set to become his payee and have him move into a duplex with a yard at the nursing home where my stepmom was living, but the youngers inflamed the passions of the elders over this and they refused to support it. Not wanting to force my dad to do something (that he would have done had his kids presented a united front, less the youngers) I let it go. The result being that the youngers continued to take all his money for another year and a half, so his own bills were still going unpaid. Then he fell off a ladder trying to change a lightbulb, another thing that would not have happened had he moved into independent housing at the NH because they had maintenance people go around and check for things like that and take care of it for residences.

Had they stuck to the original plan, making me payee so I could be sure his bills were paid, stop the monetary predations of the youngers, and having him move into independent housing, he'd still be in Ohio, I wouldn't be on the verge of flunking out of my doctoral program (in clinical psych), he wouldn't have had to suffer all the health problems pursuant to the fall over the last year and a half, etc etc ad nauseum.

And nauseum is EXACTLY the feeling I get when I think about the useless sibs.

I suspect this will be his last garden. There just looked to be too much stuff in his lung this time. They're putting him on something called Tarceva, the side effects sound horrible, but it's his only chance. We'll see I guess.

Zen,

So sorry to hear the situation with your father and siblings. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon to have family members take advantage. I hope that things workout well for everyone.