Best place for seeds!

[Lumpy]

I am fed up with trawling around hundreds of net pages so...where is the best place to get veggie seeds?

[veggiechicken]

Depends on your priorities - what you want to buy and how much you'll pay !!
Do you want organic, open pollinated, F1,?
Large packets or small?
Cheap or expensive?
Popular varieties or something unusual?

[Bigmallly]

That's a million dollar question Lumpy but @ 61 posts I would suggest the VSP store...........

[Guest]

It depends what you are after (obviously veg)? and what you are prepared tp pay?

Main seed companies I tend to avoid as I find the germination rates are lower and have a lot of F1 varieties so if you like something you have to rebuy their seed and can be expensive (although there are often special offers, trial packs and end of season sales). So the main are:-

Thompson and Morgan
Suttons
Mr Fothergills
Unwins
Marshalls
Kings (suffolk herbs are the same group)
Chilterns (they do tend to offer a few more heritage and unusuals)

I think kings and t+m also do group discounts if you can get people around you involved (aimed at allotments but I know village groups exist)

For most veg growers try:-

Moreveg (good for small quantities and budget)
Realseed (can get pricey but is aimed at you saving your own seed)
Gardenorganic
Brown Envelope Seeds
Irish Seed Savers

Worth a try and often on flea-bay:-

premier seed direct
just seed
proseeds of spalding
original touch
simply seed
plants world seed

If you are after something more unusual try:-

Mammothonion (show veg)
Pennardplants
pontzyfield nursery
norfolk chilli farm (just peppers )
edwin tucker
peas and beans
victoriana nursery
nickeys nursery
simpson seed
seaspring seed
jandl seeds (also on amazon)
thomas etty

If you are really flush or someone wants to treat you

Heritage Seed Library (6 or 8 packs of seed a year of rare seed but membership is around £20, then another £30 for gardenorganic)

There are others but cannot think of them at the mo. I hope this helps a little

Then there is the VSP

[veggiechicken]

For cheap and ordinary-ish - try Aldi/Lidl, Wilko and the £ shops.

[arpoet]

Although I no longer have the lottie, I am still a member of the local society and get seeds via them from Kings... much cheaper than kings online site. I find the quality first class without many failures.

[Lumpy]

After getting a numb bum looking at various sites I quite like the look of Kings (I need a catalogue as the web site don't work to well on my steam driven computer) and Moreveg. I always used to use Browns but I have had quite a few failures this and last year and it wasn't ALL my fault.
Thanks everybody
Now where's my debit card gone - pig poo hubby has hidden it again!

[Alison]

Kings are good and do a pretty good selection. I use them through the National Allotment Society for the discount but do love some of the more unusual stuff (and their ethics) of Real Seeds and my Christmas treat from the Heritage Seed Library.

[Snow]

It depends what you are after (obviously veg)? and what you are prepared tp pay?

Main seed companies I tend to avoid as I find the germination rates are lower and have a lot of F1 varieties so if you like something you have to rebuy their seed and can be expensive (although there are often special offers, trial packs and end of season sales). So the main are:-

Thompson and Morgan
Suttons
Mr Fothergills
Unwins
Marshalls
Kings (suffolk herbs are the same group)
Chilterns (they do tend to offer a few more heritage and unusuals)

I think kings and t+m also do group discounts if you can get people around you involved (aimed at allotments but I know village groups exist)

For most veg growers try:-

Moreveg (good for small quantities and budget)
Realseed (can get pricey but is aimed at you saving your own seed)
Gardenorganic

Worth a try and often on flea-bay:-

premier seed direct
just seed
proseeds of spalding
original touch

If you are after something more unusual try:-

Mammothonion (show veg)
Pennardplants
pontzyfield nursery
norfolk chilli farm (just peppers - they still have free seed if you are quick)
terwins
edwin tucker
peas and beans
victoriana nursery
nickeys nursery

If you are really flush or someone wants to treat you

Heritage Seed Library (6 or 8 packs of seed a year of rare seed but membership is around £20)

There are others but cannot think of them at the mo. I hope this helps a little

Then there is the VSP

Real seed looks really good I have to say. If anything will make me part with some cash it's this cause they are all open pollinated seeds with good descriptions and a lot look well worth growing. Thanks for that!

Seen the heritage seed library before and always thought it looked really great, love that sort of thing and can well understand people getting it as a Christmas treat, but too expensive for me.

[Rocketron]

I've always liked this firm.
Franchi Seeds of Italy 1783
Loads of seeds for your money and good germination rates.

[sparrow100]

My favourites are RealSeeds, Vegetableseeds.net, Seeds of Italy and Premier Seeds. I've had really poor germination from MoreVeg seeds so I don't buy from them anymore. One thing to watch out for next year is the Wyevale 50p seed packet sale.

If you like squashes, Baker Creek Shop by Department | Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co (US site) and Bobby's Seeds Samen, Saatgut, Smereien von Bobby-Seeds - Bobby-Seeds Onlineshop (German site) have an amazingly tempting range...

[sparrow100]

That's a million dollar question Lumpy but @ 61 posts I would suggest the VSP store...........

Also second this - there are some very lovely things in there.

[Lumpy]

Me being thick again - what's the VSP store?

[veggiechicken]

VSP = Virtual Seed Parcel
Read all about it here http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...nce_68032.html

[FlawlessVictory]

I've got most of mine from premierseedsdirect over the years on ebay, this year however I've bought bulk mixed lots of random Fothergills seed packets from ebay and that has me just about set for next year!