Seed Catalogs - best and worst?

[CarolAnn]

How about a list of your very favorite seed companies - and the ones you'll never deal with again? (and why!)

Winter is the perfect time to settle down with a cup of something hot, and browse through those catalogs!

My favorites are:
Burpee & Parks because they send what they advertise, and you can get hermetically sealed seed packages (which means fresher seeds)

Pinetree Garden Seeds - sheer volume of varieties & cheap prices

Wayside and White Flower Farm - (haven't ordered, just love those beautiful catalogs that are full of information!)

All time worst:
Thompson & Morgan - lovely catalog, but too high prices, they screwed up orders two years in a row, no customer service at all and didn't issue refunds for what wasn't in stock. Also, low germination (or no germination) on some expensive seeds. It's all picture and no substance.

[bookwormom]

I have dealt with Burpee in the past and had no complaints.
Lowes sold Burpee seeds last spring and they were 40% off the catalog price. I bought seeds at the Southern States store, they had some oldfashioned seeds and at least the packets were well filled. Shumway barely had anything in their packets, Gurneys still has not sent me a catalog, after requesting one three times. Pinetree sounds good, the mixes of seeds are inviting, all kinds of cabbage in one packet for instance. I read somewhere that a couple of big companies own most of the seed companies and the only thing remaining is the name. when I called for gurney I reached Henry fields at the same time, they are owned by the same company. the stuff sold is the same, the difference is in the name and in the packet.
what I would like is a true family operation specializing in open pollinating varieties.

[zebraman]

Hey Guys; Monsanto recently bought out Burpee,Siminis which is also owned by Monsanto had purchased 49% of Burpee a couple of years ago.

The two Best Family owned buis. are

1.http://www.heirloomacresseeds.com/ Which is a Christian,family owned buiseness and they run it like they are Christian.Which is hard to find these days.

2.http://www.victoryseeds.com/ I have purchased a lot of seeds from this Co.and will again.They have THE collection of Livingston Tomatoes.(Old).

3.http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/ Really great selection,great prices.But they are slow.If you order do so a month or two before you need the seeds.

[Penny_Plinker]

Good subject for this time of year. Only catalogs i've gotten so far is Johnnies and Jung. Johnnies has some good information in it. Jung prices seem pretty good. 8.95 for 25 Tristar everbearing strawberries. May get some of those.

Gurneys and Fields catalogs come out in January. They had me very confused one year....i sent money to one for a special e-mail offer on their trees. Then the other sent me a bill for the difference on what the full price of the trees would have been. Like they're the same company somehow but don't know what the other is doing and it took several phone calls to get it straightened out. In a way i don't like them being the same company... if you don't know it, you try to compare prices, but there's no difference. There's also no difference in the products they carry, so it's almost like they're trying to trick you or something.

A good thing about Gurneys though (and i guess Henry Fields, too since they're the same)...if something doesn't live, just let them know. They will send a replacement the next spring.

Penny

[Wildflower]

My favorite is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

http://www.rareseeds.com/

Good people, good service.

[DM]

I've had by far my best luck with seeds by buying them from a local grain elevator. The one i use gets there seeds in, in bulk and packages them, themselves.

I've had a lot of catalog seeds that just didn't perform, but i've yet to get a bad seed from my local elevator or green house who also gets seed in, in bulk.

I no longer order seeds from catalogs....

DM

[leera]

I ordered from Baker Creek last season,have NO complaints about them at all.

Everything I planted came up healthy and happy.
The hot peppers even survived getting caught in hail.....and went on to produce very well.

The prices were reasonable,and the packets had LOTS in them........I still have some from last season,but will probaly order a few things from them this year as well.

[humbug]

I think it is important to order from catalogs that grow their seed in the same type of climate you have. I ordered some watermelon seed from Gurneys several years ago. The seed packet said it was grown in Mexico. Needless to say it did not do well in my cold weather climate. I currently order from Johnnys, Burpee, Nichols, Pinetree seeds and my all time favorite The Cooks garden. I have had really good luck with all of these companies.

[LaDonna]

I like Baker Creek and Seed Saver. Baker Creek is cheaper and they are very good to deal with, so actually they are my favorite.

LaDonna

[leera]

I just called in my order to Baker Creek.They are very nice people indeed.

The woman on the other end and I actually TALKED about gardening,etc after I placed my order.

She said she was just as diappointed as I was that they aren't offering Lemon Squash this year......she even told me why they don't have it.

I guess the people who were contracted to grow it for them last season came back empty handed.........bad growing conditions or other issues,and they were not able to save enough seed to be able to offer it for sale this year.

SO>>>>> who's put in their seed orders already??

[GrannySueD_in_IL]

Best: Pinetree, SSE and SoC (but the second two are expensive...) always great germination and true to descriptions on all three.

Pinetree has the smaller packets, but with germination rates, they are well worth the .50 to 1.00 per pack on most items.

Also a plus for me is the nearly 100% op seeds without having to check... all 3 are like that, too...

Worst: anything related to gurney/burgess - its hit or miss with them on just about everything... mainly hybrids, some descriptions were written on an entirely different planet, lol.

[Weezin]

Let the hard-core gardeners do the rasearch for you.

http://davesgarden.com/gwd/

...............................................Den nis.........

[MHinFox]

Bakers Creek ,SSE,SoC my favorite 3. good service good folks-good cause.

[zebraman]

Hey Guys; this list has a lot of Great Companies that offer OP/non-GMO seeds.
http://www.greenpeople.org/seeds.htm

One word on Caution;Harvest Moon in NM has gotten a lot of Negatives on Dave's Garden- so my advice is order instead from the source-
http://www.growitalian.com/

[Smoky]

One I have had good results from and not seen mentioned here is
http://www.plantsofthesouthwest.com
I got chile seeds from them back a few years ago, been saving seed from them. I THINK all their stuff is OP, it's a small family thing.

[zebraman]

Hey Guys;I found this place while I was looking for heirloom,short day onion seeds and I have ordered but haven't yet received 1st order yet.They do carry a lot of unusual varieties.And seed count is really huge compared to the price.
http://www.gourmetseed.com/index.html

[countrymom21]

I don't know anything about gardening yet. I really want to learn so I can grow a few things for the freezer. If anyone can help me out. cgmercer04@peoplepc.com ???

[lost1]

We depend on our garden a lot!
We have had the best luck with Bakercreek and pinetree.
We avoid Gurney, Henry Field and that whole outfit.