Where does everyone get the bulk of their seeds from?

[eccles_angus]

Hello all,

It's that time of year where we start to plan and look forward to next years bounty. This will be my first real year of planning and growing in my new veg plot and (hopefully) shiny new greenhouse (oh and flowers too I suppose, as long as they don't take up too much greenhouse propagation space!).

So… I was wondering where everyone tended to get their seeds from? There are the usual big boys, but wondered if anyone had found a smaller source they would recommend, even if just for the more un-of-the-mill, leaving the T&M's of the world to top us up with some exotica (Phew… that was close - my auto-correct changed that one to something else and yet completely different!!).

I have been drawn by seed parade, but I can't find any comment on them for the last year or so.

[Kristen]

I get 99% of my veg seed in the Wyevale 50p-a-packet sale - back in September.

if I want something unusual then whoever sells it at a cost-conscious price.

Other stuff I generally buy from Moles Seeds as they usually work out cheapest - but you have to buy reasonable bulk of seed, so it has to be something I am growing a lot of, or will keep for several seasons (sharing with adjacent plot holders would do too, of course).

I would expect an allotment association "shop" to be a good price too.

Premier Seeds on eBay is popular, and cheap, but my first purchase from them, last Spring, had seeds mixed up which rather put me off - e.g. Climbing Beans that I purchased that were labelled correctly turned out to be Dwarf ...
EDIT: And in Year 2 they shipped the wrong product (i.e. not a substitution)
Plus I find their sowing info, online, as good as useless (lots of Americanisms in the text too e.g. "Fall", so i wonder if there are instances where the information is wrong for UK??) compared to the back of a packet of, say, Suttons seeds. Might be something to consider for a Newbie.

[sparrow100]

This thread had a similar question recently - you might find that helpful:
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...eds_82518.html

[Lisasbolt]

I have used Just seed, on ebay who are very good and very reasonable.
But i love premier seeds direct (ebay) the value cannot be beaten with somethings. No fancy packets but you can get sowing info on the net anywhere. I love to experiment and when seeds are only 99p a packet, you can afford to play around.
I have had great germination rates with both companies, any fault tends to be my own

[alldigging]

Suttons through their allotment scheme (40% off)
T&M when I have vouchers to spend (Thanks to this wonderful site!)
moreveg.co.uk cos their September packs were ace!
vegetableseeds.net cos they had a HUGE sale on.

[Thelma Sanders]

As many as possible from the Wyevale's end of season sale - all 50p a packet
Premier seeds direct on ebay, as already said, and sometimes a few things from DT Brown, (free p&p for seed orders)

I do get seeds for salads and tomatoes from Seeds of Italy, but the packets are huge so they last me about 4 years

[Kirk]

Mine tend to come from Moreveg, they simply do packs in smaller amounts so I do not end up with a large amount of wasted seeds. They also do a fairly good variety of seeds.

Also means I can get say 2 or 3 different varieties of a veg and try both out, again without having large amounts left over doing nothing. As they tend to be 50-80p a pack then it works fine for me.

[sparrow100]

Suttons through their allotment scheme (40% off)

Now that is very handy to know about, thank you! Vegetableseeds.net have a 10% discount for allotments, but this will be good for large orders of staple things.

Though if I suggest it, I think I know who will end up organising it all....

[eccles_angus]

Good stuff folks thanks! The link to other thread was very useful too, sorry I hadn't spotted it!

I like the idea of moreveg, the smaller packet size sounds ideal - the more varieties the better in my book, but that's not going to happen when the big boys are pushing their seeds at ~£2 a packet!

Roll on spring!

[noviceveggrower]

I seem to get a load off gardening mags. I have bought a few from MoreVeg.co.uk and vegetableseeds.net.
I very rarely buy from garden centres as I think they can be expensive especially if you shop round on the internet or wait for seeds sales at places like Wilkos.

[sparrow100]

If you get your posts up, there is also the http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...nce_68032.html

[Alicante]

I generally buy most of my seeds from Wilkos. Their range is quite limited though, so for anything special or just a bit different, I try the internet. I agree paying more than £2 for a packet of bog standard seeds hurts!

[alldigging]

Now that is very handy to know about, thank you! Vegetableseeds.net have a 10% discount for allotments, but this will be good for large orders of staple things.

Though if I suggest it, I think I know who will end up organising it all....

They (suttons) give you a code these days so people can do their own order! No effort other than distrubuting the code and catalogues and order form !)
40% off seeds
15% off everything else

[Kristen]

Now that is very handy to know about, thank you! Vegetableseeds.net have a 10% discount for allotments, but this will be good for large orders of staple things.

I don't have an allotment, and there isn't an allotment shop (that I know of ) in the vicinity, so I may be talking trash ... but I thought that Kings Seeds were the main players offering generous? deals for allotments?

[Kristen]

They (suttons) give you a code these days so people can do their own order! No effort other than distrubuting the code and catalogues and order form !)
40% off seeds
15% off everything else

Sorry, hadn't seen that when I posted above. Sounds very easy for the allotment, but I can't see the attraction for Suttons (same amount of small order handling etc.) and what's to stop someone just publishing the 40% off code on the web and the world and spouse taking advantage of it?

EDIT: Ah ... "Order Form" ... maybe that's it, not an online process perhaps?