Comments regarding Territorial Seed Company

I think it’s probably just human nature that we tend to post comments about vendors when we have a problem with them. I certainly have done so here in the past. But when I put together my list of recommended seed suppliers for a Senior Gardening posting this year, I realized that I should make a positive comment here about each of our suppliers that have performed so well over the years.

We’ve used Territorial Seed Company for “spot orders” for the last several years, mainly ordering stuff we need but can’t find anywhere else. We’ve been satisfied with the results of each order.

//www.senior-gardening.com/features/suppliers.html

I opened a 1/2 pound bag of Fava Beans yesterday purchased from Territorial and out came broken glass with the Fava Beans. Really glad I didn't have kids working with me. I called the company and got an answering machine for customer service. No real help there. I am purchasing from even more local seed companies from now on.

"On Oct 15, 2012 9:21 AM, Territorial Seed Company responded with:

I am very sorry that there was glass in your fava packet. I can honestly say that I have never heard of this happening before and can assure you that it is far from common. Our customer service staff is not here on Sundays but I checked with them this morning and it seems that they have already contacted you. If you have any additional concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us."

I have purchased Territorial Seeds for several years and have become a devoted customer. I purchase the seeds from my local nursery, as the company is only 100 miles from my home.
For the first time, in May, I stopped by their store and greenhouse while traveling. I was impressed with their prices compared to my local nurseries and the interesting local plants that are difficult to find. I purchased quite a bit and everything I planted is growing beautifully; being strong, healthy plants. I will travel back next spring!

As a fairly new gardener, I must say I love the TSC catalog! I call it my mini garden guide. It is full of all the plants' growing information and contains many color photos. While I agree the shipping costs when ordering a few packets of seeds is too high, there is a way around it. Contact your local nursery and ask them to consider TSC as their (or an additional) seed rack company. This way you can avoid shipping charges and support your local nursery. The seeds are pre-printed with the price on them & it is the same cost as the online & printed catalog. My local nursery stocks many varieties of seed from TSC so I can support my local ecomony while getting the seeds I desire.

Good folks, good seeds and veggie plants grown locally. Just called them up and the gal was friendly and helpful. Every time I've gone in to buy plants they are very friendly. A rare thing, today. Want to eat and buy locally? Then this is the place.

I've ordered seeds from Territorial Seed Company many times and have been generally satisfied. This year, for the first time, I ordered plants -- a compact Stella Cherry, a hardy Fuchsia, and Oca. The bare-root Stella Cherry arrived first, was huge, and seems to be doing well, having broken dormancy quickly and with vigor. The hardy Fuchsia arrived some weeks later and is healthy and nice. The Oca should be sent toward the end of this month or early May. So, I really have no complaints.

In 2011 I placed an order which included 2 8 oz. packages of pea seeds of 2 different varieties. I did not get a chance to plant them in 2011. When I went to plant them this Spring, each package felt light so I weighed them. Each package weighed approximately 4 oz, not 8 oz. This seemed strange to me so I thought maybe the seeds had dried some and that would account for the weight discrepancy. I decided to count the seeds. Their catalog states that the seed count per ounce is 90-165 seeds. Each package contained approximately 400 seeds or about 4 oz. of seeds rather than the 8 oz. that I ordered.

To me, this discrepancy in two seed packages of different peas does not seem random. If I order from them again, I will definitely weigh the seed packages.

Has anyone had a similar experience with Territorial Seeds?

"On Apr 26, 2012 7:59 PM, Territorial Seed Company responded with:

Sorry about the discrepancy in the weight of your pea packages. Haven't heard of any other issues like this so hoping that your case is isolated. If you call or email our customer service department, we'd be happy to send you more seed or refund your money."

I do not intend to order plants again from Territorial Seed. An order I placed some time ago arrived today, and although the plants appear to be very healthy, the size of the containers and the plants themselves are unbelievably small. VERY tiny, indeed, and their cost was either at least as much or higher than others far larger that I have ordered from other online nurseries. The shipping cost for four teeny plants in a very small carton was nearly $19, and I reside a short driving distance from Territorial Seed! One plant I ordered was not included and shown as being back-ordered on the packing slip, but there was no indication of when they expect to ship it. The total cost of five tiny plants, plus shipping, was over $42 and caused my jaw to drop when I saw what arrived for that amount of money. The only thing I'm happy about with this order is that what did arrive looks healthy and thriving. Period.

I've ordered both seeds and plants from Territorial Seed every year since I started gardening three years ago. They are wonderful, and their customer service has always been stellar. The Territorial representatives who show up at Portland's garden show every year are super helpful to a beginning gardener, and very willing to offer advice and suggestions. It's very much to my benefit that Territorial is located in Oregon, just a couple hours from me, so the plants that work well for them are likely to work for me as well.

Last year, I ordered tomato and pepper plants. While they were smaller when they arrived than plants I purchased locally, they eventually outperformed many of the other tomatoes that I planted. One of the tomatoes arrived with a broken stem. I called Territorial immediately, and received a replacement within a couple days. The Rocky cucumber seeds they recommended (although quite expensive) were stellar. My other cucumbers suffered from powdery mildew, while the Rockies preformed better for much longer. The fruits were tender and very sweet. I'll be planting only Rockies this year.

I've also had good experiences with seeds ordered from Johnny's, Thompson Morgan, and Irish Eyes potatoes, among others.

The short version for people just looking for a reputable seed company.
I have ordered from the following companies for years
they all have good prices, customer service and good germination rate.
Johnny's, Kitazawa Seed, Rohrer seeds, Territorial Seed Comp, and Seed Savers Exchange.

Posted on March 23, 2010, updated March 8, 2012
Posted on February 11, 2010, updated March 23, 2010
Posted on January 25, 2010, updated February 11, 2010
I just placed a seed order and received them promptly, as ordered and in great condition. I chose standard shipping, but got the seeds within a few days of placing the order. I am impressed. Those who squawk about shipping costs have clearly never run a business and had to print catalogs or run shipping departments. Obviously, the shipping cost will be a smaller proportion to the order if one orders more from the one source. For me, I buy a little here and a little there (this year, five catalogs worth) and pay the extra shipping to have the selection and specific varieties I want. My convenience has a cost and I'm willing to bear it. Territorial has thus far exceeded my expectations and I plan to use them again. I will update as I plant and harvest from the seeds.

I love Territorial Seeds. They're my go-to supplier for my basic seed supply, and I've never been disappointed with the price or quality.

Even though I garden in New England, I continue to order from Territorial because they have a wonderful choice of varieties of both vegetable and flower seeds, the quality of their seeds is high, and because they are so speedy. I always order from several seed catalogues online on the same day. For the last two years, Territorial has been the first order to arrive. This year the order arrived three days after I placed it !

I've ordered from territorial for the last six year for summer and overwintering vegetables. I've been very satisfied. Seeds offered excellent germination and end product was exactly as advertised. Best source I've found for overwintering varieties.

Posted on March 1, 2012, updated March 2, 2012
I was intending to leave a neutral rating for this company beacause I love their products but find their shipping fees ridiculous. I just cancelled an order of about $90 with a shipping fee of about $40. So, I was going to leave a neutral rating until I read this rebuttal to a negative comment on their absurd shipping charges:
"a customer could order seeds, potatoes, blueberry plants and garlic; each of which is sent out separately but are all included in the standard flat fee. You can see in this example how the flat fee of $7.50 would be a bargain.
Tom Johns"
President, Territorial Seed Company
Great! So, charge me $7.50... NOT $37.75

"On Mar 1, 2012 8:52 PM, Territorial Seed Company responded with:

Hi there, would you mind letting me know what items were on your order that caused the $37.75 shipping so I can look into it? Thank you in advance.

I agree with ALL the others about shipping cost. Just ordered seeds I cannot find anywhere else and was shocked by the cost. Won't be ordering from anymore until shipping costs come down.

Today, I had about 1/2 of my 2012 order entered online (mid-morning on a Wednesday) when a webpage with this message appeared when I tried to add another item to my "cart".

"The website is temporarily unavailable as we prepare to go live with our brand-new website to enhance your shopping experience! We'll be back online as soon as possible. Please call Customer Service to place your order at 1-800-626-0866 or email info@territorialseed.com. Thank you for your patience!"

No warning was given ahead of time that their site would suddenly NOT be available. It would seem simple that they could inform customers buying items on their site that the site would be unavailable in xx minutes or hours, or the site would be going down on a certain day.

Last year, In January 2011, when I bought online from them, there were a couple of seed types that I really wanted to get started early inside. But when I got my order later, I found that the 2 items I wanted early were "on back-order". Their website had not shown that the items were not in stock when I was ordering the items.

I like their products, but I think they need to do a better job communicating with their customers buying online, especially when I think that the communication would be easy to do.

This is one of my favorite seed companies. I like the varieties offered, the prices are fair, and I've always received what I've ordered quickly. No problems whatsoever. All seeds germinated well. One of the best companies for vegetable gardeners from my experience.

I just sent this comment to Terrritorial Seeds, and my email form the Yahoo! address was blocked by Spamcop - good on them for using a spam blocker but not on a customer! I wanted to comment on the ridiculous shipping costs for seeds.

"I just wanted to say that I love your selections and unusual seeds, which is why I order Tromboncino and Dragon's Tongue beans, among other things from you, no one else carries them. That said, 7.95 is a stupid amount of money for shipping two packets of seeds, that should have been a couple of dollars at the most - surely you can make some accommodation for shipping small, lightweight items? The shipping was more than the seeds! Tough economy and all, I know but that applies to all of us...

I just received my order of an evergreen huckleberry plant and two seaberry plants. Despite the fact that UPS took a week to get them to me, bashed the heck out of the package, and then delivered them to the wrong address, they ultimately arrived in EXCELLENT, healthy condition. It is a testament to Territorial's quality as well as their packing job. The plants look strong and healthy. I have ordered seeds from them in the past and have always had excellent results with that too. Great company, they are on my list of companies I love to deal with. Thanks Territorial!

Territorial Seeds has been my go-to source for seeds since I began gardening in the Pacific NW about 12 years ago. While their prices are somewhat higher than those of many seed producers around the country, the quality of the seeds is unmatched anywhere. For years, I would do multiple seed plantings (as you must do with most seeds) and invariably, I would either end up with far more starts than I could use or having to pinch off many many additional starts. Now, with Territorial's seeds, I plant one seed per pot and get nearly 100% germination rate. The seeds and plants, in my experience, are unmatched in quality. I even have some seeds that are 5-7 years old from Territorial that I planted this spring, and their germination rate is equivalent to what I've found from new seeds from other mail order companies and off-the-shelf seeds.

Additionally, their customer service has been phenomenal. I have always found them to be friendly, helpful, and available for advice and information.

I can't say enough nice things about these guys.

I should note that their catalogue prices for non-seed items are really high, though. They find high quality items, but seem to mark them up from retail, so get your ideas from the back of the catalogue, then go find these things elsewhere. :)

I intended to place an order with this company. Upon reaching the checkout screen, I found that my $13.10 order for three seed packets would be charged an additional $7.50 for shipping, insurance, and other fees.

This is exorbitant. I have spent around $700 on my garden and orchard so far this year alone, and intend to spend a similar amount next year. I notified Territorial by e-mail that they had lost a potential customer.

Rather than express any concern about the loss of a potential repeat customer, I received the following cut and paste e-mail in response:

"I'm sorry, but let me share what our president wrote as a reply to explain shipping charges, just so you know how we operate, and we totally understand about small orders, but do not have anything in place for a different rate at this time.
**************************************************************************************

Each year we spend quite a bit of time evaluating different ways to implement the charges for shipping, handling, and insurance. For the vast majority of our customers, the flat fee system that we use is the most advantageous for them.

You can purchase one packet of seed or 1001 packets of seed and the shipping, handling and insurance fee will be the same. Furthermore, Territorial offers a wide range of gardening products, which ship at several different times throughout the season.


For example, a customer could order seeds, potatoes, blueberry plants and garlic; each of which is sent out separately but are all included in the standard flat fee. You can see in this example how the flat fee of $7.50 would be a bargain.
Tom Johns
President, Territorial Seed Company
**************************************************************************************
Most sincerely,
Lori T @ TSC"

Posted on July 12, 2009, updated April 8, 2011
I saw a most unusual plant on their website and ordered it - an Escargot Begonia. The price was perfect (although shipping a little high) but had never seen it in a store before, so ordered it. Well, the shipment was sent right out, but what I got instead was a Fuschia plant. My delivery was on a Saturday and I had to wait until Monday to call them. To my delight I was told that I could keep the Fuschia plant and they would immediately ship out my Escargo Begonia. As you can imagine I was extremely delighted and thought I will definitely order from them again. I immediately did as they told me and re-potted the Fuschia and sat back and waited on the Escargo Begonia. It came within the week and all was well. NOT. It hasn't been 3 months and it appears that BOTH plants are dying. I am very dissappointed. I have never seen plants that have died this fast and both from the same company. Even with watering, the leaves have dried up on both plants like they have been in the hot, hot sun all day, which hasn't been the case. I bought another begonia at the same time from a local company and it is thriving. Needless to say, I am quite dissappointed in my order from Territorial.

I marked this as Neutral even though it feels pretty Negative to me. I placed my order January 10 for 4 packets of seeds as well as potatoes and onion plants. The seeds arrived fairly quickly except for the Graffiti cauliflower seeds. I ordered from Territorial rather than from the other million companies whose catalogs I get because they offered the Graffiti variety of cauliflower. I was not happy when my seeds arrived minus the cauliflower. Generally a company will tell you that something is out of stock and offer either a replacement or cancellation. I emailed their CS mid-February and they said they expected their supply to come in mid-March. Since the indoor planting date for me is Feb. 15, I had to go to a garden center and buy whatever variety they offered. The good news is, germination of the other seeds was 100%. I'm getting a little worried because my onions are supposed to go in this weekend.

I have ordered from Territorial Seeds for several years, and have always had good experiences with them. I like their wide selection. My orders have always arrived quickly, and there are plentiful seeds in the packets. I fully intend to keep ordering from them.

I compared their overall costs with other seed provider catalogs, and since I tend to order a lot of seeds at a time, their shipping costs combined with their seed packet costs appeared to me to be in line with the others.

Used them for three or four years and always had decent luck with their plants, but the shipping costs are exorbitant. Even if they aren't gouging you—and maybe they're not—spending that kind of money on shipping is absurd. More and more organic greenhouses are springing up and they offer rare varieties and heirlooms. Even if you had to drive 100 miles, you'd come out ahead. As a last resort—if money is no object—then a yes to Territorial Seed. But for the other 99% of us, I say no.

Ordered some seed starting items on 2/4. Was concerned when there was no acknowledging e-mail. But not to worry, they arrived today. Nice items, just as pictured in their catalog. So all is well.

I noticed that a few people have said they thought that Territorial's shipping and handling charges were high-I certainly don't think so. I raise a small garden here in Alaska and I don't spend that much on seed right now, and I'm sure I'd buy much more if I gardened in the lower 48 like many of you. I just compared my $55 seed order from Territorial with some of the other seed companies I've done business with in the past and this is what I found-the shipping and handling charges would have been with them. Burpee: $11.95 Johnny's $11.95 Seeds Of Change $10.95 Harris $9.90
Seed Savers Exchange $9.00 Pinetree $8.95 and guess what my Territorial order was.....$7.50!!! And from territorial you can order as much seed as you want on that $7.50, most other companies charge you more for the more you order. So for my small garden Territorial is a bargain!

The black fig I got last spring grew well and is now leafing out in my kitchen. I also got a blood orange citrus tree, but that was not so great and it was really expensive. It hasn't grown a bit, but maybe that's me. I recently got some really good arugula seeds that gave me the tastiest arugula I've ever had. And they have a lot of kale varieties, I think I planted the tuscan kale. Good germination rates. I didn't find the shipping bad for a large amount of seed packets. So overall, a positive experience with good turnaround times.

I've ordered from Territorial for years, but this year, with the exception of some onion plants (which I've had very good luck with in the past) I will be ordering from other places. Their prices are not very competative and their shipping is really high. I can get certified organic potato seeds from Peaceful Valley or Fedco for a LOT less $$.

That said, with the exception of one winter squash variety that was not true to type (I did notify them -with pictures - got no response) I've always had excellent germination and product from them. Seed shipping has always been timely. Not a bad company, just a bit steep if you are on a tight budget.

This used to be my favorite seed company. The seeds have always done well. One problem I did have is it takes a long time for the shipment to reach me. And this year the shipping is just to high.

I've bought seeds from them for several years now, via their Web site. I think their seeds are generally of high quality and true to name, but I have had one issue with Territorial, and it is a BIG issue, in my mind: they WILL sell your customer data to other seed/plant companies and you WILL get a boatload of catalogs from companies you have never dealt with. While some people won't mind that, I regard it as spamming. Apparently somewhere in the tiny TOS print there is a box to UNcheck to opt out of this, but of course, the default behavior should be to OPT IN, if desired. I didn't see it, so I got screwed.

I won't buy from them anymore because of this. Nothing wrong with their products or the rest of their service, so decide for yourself how you feel about issues like the one I described. I am giving them a neutral rating: one star for "privacy policy" and four stars for quality of product = neutral rating.

Love this company. Asparagus crowns were robust and at least twice (maybe three times) the size of crowns ordered from Gurney's (that never came up and arrived covered in mold). Friendly and helpful customer service, look forward to ordering from them in the future.

I love this company. Everything I have ordered from them has been consistent and flourished. I also like the fact that they ship fast, and communicate!

TSC has been my "go-to" seed catalog for years. I have had consistently higher germination rates on their seed than any other source I've tried. As a gardener in coastal California my climate is conveniently similar to theirs, so I know their varieties will perform well in my area.

Ordered 2 kiwi plants last year - arrived quickly in good condition. One thrived, the other is struggling. Wrote to Territorial almost a year later and received refund (replacement was unavailable).

Seed order placed on Sunday was shipped quickly on Monday with an email notification and rec'd by Thursday. It was packed well with another package of seeds included to "plant to feed the hungry".

Their website is easy to navigate and I will shop there again when they have what I am in need of...

Thank you.

I ordered from the Territorial Seed company for the first time this year. I placed my order on April 28th, it was shipped the same day and arrived 2 days later. I was able to track the package. The seeds were packaged well.
I recommend this company.

I've had a number of orders filled by Territorial over the years, all without problem. This year, I had a number of issues and all were resolved promptly and without question. Service recovery is as important as quality of product, price, and primary service. The company absolutely delivered!