627783 Sun Jun 14 07:43:44 -0700 2009 17 62 Gardening 0 4771402 My favorites: Kitazawa Seeds (anything Japanese) from CA. Rare Seeds -an amazing web site. Also a great community board. If you have a question, someone will answer thoughtfully and quickly. Southern Seed Exchange - Good luck so far with their heirloom beans and best of all, they breed for the summers here in the South. Matt Sun Jun 14 07:43:44 -0700 2009 18069 Westy 1 4771592 I live in Canada. here are my favourite sources. 1. McFayden Seed Company: www.mcfayden.com 1-800-205-7111 If you phone now you can get their fall catalogue. A great company. 2. In Toronto, I buy my special vegetable seeds from "Urban Harvest Garden Alternatives". 59 Elm Grove Avenue (Dufferin & Queen) 416-504-1653 www.uharvest.ca I usually get their special heritage & organic seeds and also plants at the Farmer's Markets at Riverdale (Tuesdays) or Dufferin Grove (Thursdays). I have also had good luck with McKenzie Seeds for simple veggies like raddishes. www.mckenzieseeds.com But I bought about 4 packages from Sheridan Nurseries and half the seeds were bad. Then I noticed the McKenzie Seeds at Canadian Tire had expiry dates on them. So I suspect the Sheridan Nursery seeds had expired. There are other brands of seeds available in Toronto or by mail across Canada, but I find these three companies to be the best. Sun Jun 14 09:12:58 -0700 2009 4771402 194774 Smachnoho 2 4772436 I have had great success with Salt Spring Seeds in the past. http://www.saltspringseeds.com/ I just bought a whole bunch of seeds from Urban Harvest this year and while it's too early too tell... my little seedlings are coming in nicely... Sun Jun 14 16:14:14 -0700 2009 4771592 11551 Apple 2 4773076 Seed Savers Exchange: http://www.seedsavers.org/Items.aspx?hierId=8 I love their mission, to help people appreciate and preserve heirloom seeds, and the varieties are fantastic. Baker Creek (aka Rare Seeds): http://rareseeds.com/seeds/ These people are just amazing! Love the varieties, love the philosophy. I tried the Golden Honeymoon melon last year -- OMG!! So many great seeds. Nichols Nursery: http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/store/dept.asp?dept_id=24&mscssid=ERPPJP5XGKRE9PV06F2US623X1MPBKS7 Nichols was my introduction, years ago, to many and varied herb and vegetable seeds. Still family run by Rose Marie Nichols McGee. I still buy some things from Seeds of Change, although I'm dismayed at how many hybrid seeds they offer these days. http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/browse_category.aspx?id=1 I have an old loyalty to Park Seeds (a modern seed company, though still family run last I checked): http://www.parkseed.com/gardening/GP/homepage/page1 I get some great Italian (Franchi Sementi) seeds from Grow Italian. If you're a chicory/endive/escarole fan, be sure to check them out! http://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi Finally, I'm a fan of Frank Morton, both his seeds and philosophies. Great stuff at Wild Garden Seed: http://www.wildgardenseed.com/ Sun Jun 14 21:36:29 -0700 2009 4771592 19542 Karen_Schaffer 1 4772465 Wood Prairie in Bridgewater, ME for organic seed taters and some other seeds - radish, carrot, kale, chard, broccoli, beets, lettuce mix. The remainder from John Scheepers kitchen garden seeds in Bantam, CT - sweet potato slips, additional beets, kale, chard, arugula, cabbage. Our first year with him, but so far so good. Sun Jun 14 16:27:02 -0700 2009 4771402 74301 harrie 1 4774052 I call it Seeds from Italy, but the website is: https://growitalian.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi Everything I've ever bought from them has been great and they have a topnotch selection of hard-to-find items. Mon Jun 15 09:16:31 -0700 2009 4771402 15743 Sherri 2 4777153 Thanks. This is actually the company that I bought kale from - my local garden shop has a dsiplay of about 50 or so of their seeds. Agreed - excellent quality... Tue Jun 16 07:07:41 -0700 2009 4774052 18069 Westy 3 4777629 If you like kale, see if you can buy some of their Black Kale, aka Tuscan Kale or Cavalo Nero for autumn planting. It is different from the gray-green curly kale most of us know and quite delicious. I also recommend the Rounde de Nice zucchini and their tomato selection is not-to-be-topped. I've gotten melon seeds, Galia especially, that produce melons that dreams are made of. Tue Jun 16 09:06:03 -0700 2009 4777153 15743 Sherri 1 4777192 Cook's Garden http://www.cooksgarden.com/ Johnny's Selected Seeds http://www.johnnyseeds.com/home.aspx?ct=HG Seeds of Change http://www.seedsofchange.com/ Tue Jun 16 07:22:28 -0700 2009 4771402 75332 Gio 1 4782642 Vary rarely buy seeds anymore since I acquire just about everything I need trading with online gardeners at Gardenweb.com and other places. When I do I go to: Value Seed, Parks or Pinetree Nursery Wed Jun 17 16:35:18 -0700 2009 4771402 275312 vera_ewashington 1 4803510 I received an interesting-looking catalog today for Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply. It has organic seeds and transplants as well as organic fertilizers, composting supplies, "good bugs," and all sorts of tools. The prices look pretty good, too. Has anyone tried them? Wed Jun 24 17:47:18 -0700 2009 4771402 11231 Glencora 2 4928744 Don't know who packages their store brand seed for them, but all their other products are great. We stock up on ferts and hard-to-find supplies when we visit relatives in GV. As far as seed goes, I'd ask for their variety-specific germ rates if I were concerned. Seed companies are required to meet the fed and state minimum germ reg's, but others choose to exceed them. The company I sell for buys seed with the highest avail germ %; then stores the bulk seed in specially humidity-controlled rooms. Plug growers do not want to have to go back to fill-in seedling plug trays. They want and need the highest germ rate avail. If you buy seed from a local garden center or nursery, pay attention to where the rack is. How much turnover does it get? Are the packets faded and dusty? Is it in a hot sunny room or in a humid room with plants, or exposed to outside air moisture? Not good for the seed. Look for clean racks with a minimum of empty pockets or "outs", in a room with an average light source and low humidity. Check the back of the packet for expiration date, although high germ % seed will still germ well after the exp date IF the seed has been merchandised and stored correctly. Sat Aug 08 11:15:16 -0700 2009 4803510 11234 toodie jane 1 4803765 Johnny's Selected Seeds (wide selection) SandHill (esp. for tomatoes) Pinetree (fewer seeds per pack -inexpensive way to try new varieties) Diane's Seeds (good selection - advice) J. Hudson, (very wide selection - large quantities for the buck) Wed Jun 24 19:34:21 -0700 2009 4771402 11791 DonShirer 2 4804518 Sand Hill's corn selection is also second to none, particualrly if your looking for someting out of the ordinary and or have the space/inclination to try "alternate" garden corns (i.e. if you've decided you want to try your hand a growing grindng corn or popcorn) I'm particularly fond of the Anasazi Sweet corn when it's available (Corn seeds at Sandhill tend to have a two year cycle of avaialalbilty for all but the most popular strains; varities avaialable this year will ususally be unavailiable next year and vice versa.) I've always liked the idea of growing and serving technicolor corn on the cob, and most of the other varities on the market don't really please me ( Rainbow Inca tends to destablelize (i.e. I tend to wind up with plants that produce all white cobs that keep sweet and others that produce multicolored cobs that, true to thier floury ancestors taste starchy by the time they are big enough to harvest) Sweet Painted Hills doesnt germinate well for me and most of the other "more that yellow/whites" (Triple play, Hooker's, Black Aztec, Cocopah, Ruby Queen etc.) just aren't colorful enough.). But Don Shiriers point is valid too Sand hill's tomato selction is excellent. Speaking of tomatoes one other souce wort mentioning is Trade winds Fuits (http://www.tradewindsfruitstore.com/servlet/the-Tomatoes/Categories). This is one that you wouln't expect to have a large tomato section as they are primarily in the business of selling seeds from tropical plants. But thier tomato section, in fact is extemely large and has seed for many really obscure heirlooms, like White Zebra and Dino Eggs) if you are a real extmeme garderer its also the only souce i know of (short of an national agricutural station) for seed of many of the wild tomatoes, the ones that do not belong to Lycopersicon esculentum (most regular tomatoes) or L. pimpernellifolium (the currant tomatoes) some of these can be useful if you live in a particualrly extreme climate (Cheeseman's (L.cheesmanni) for example is very drought tolerant as is useful if you live somewhere where rain is minimal to nonexistant all summer) Tomatofest (http://store.tomatofest.com/shoppingcart.asp?Check=True) is also a great site for heirloom types, though thier rather large minimum order means that your usally better off using it as a referce unless you have a LOT of space (or are willing to go splits on the order with a large number of your firends and neighbors) Finally there is a place in France called La Boutique du Kokopelli (http://www.kokopelli.asso.fr/boutic/index-en.html) that has some interesting items. This one however comes with two big caveats. One they may not be willing to deal with you (they sold to me for a few years, and then did not fufill and order of mine and stopped replying to my emails as to why, so for all I know they no longer do business with the US) the second is that you really need to be able, or know someone who is able, to understand French pretty well. The ordering site is in English, or at least can be set to English. But the email messages you will get updating you on the status of your order or any problems with it will be in French only.) If you can get an order through to of the more intersting things from there wehn in stock (and they usally aren't) are Paiute Corn (another muticolored sweetcorn and slightly better than even Anasazi) and the de Djerba carrot (as close to those turkish "black carrots" whose juice has become so popular in health food stores as I have been able to find in seed form) Hope something here is useful! Thu Jun 25 05:33:10 -0700 2009 4803765 24492 jumpingmonk 3 4922440 minor update wile wandering online I discovered that now Native Seeds/SEARCH also has Paiute corn listed, at least I think it is (they're using the same description word for word as they did for the Cocopah, so whether they just realized they had the rong name on it or whether the two are in fact the same variety I don't know) Thu Aug 06 08:20:03 -0700 2009 4804518 24492 jumpingmonk 1 4923425 for unusual peppers, I like www.pepperjoe.com Thu Aug 06 12:40:33 -0700 2009 4771402 50613 weezycom 1 4927109 Someone else mentioned them already. Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa. Google their website. This year is the first year I've bought seeds from them. I like their mission. Fri Aug 07 15:44:27 -0700 2009 4771402 261558 pgmrdan 1 4929559 I mostly buy local. I live on Vancouver Island BC and have bought seed from West Coast Seeds for many years without disappointment. I also go to my local Seedy Saturday event each year and participate in the seed exchange and buy from smaller local vendors. I figure if they've grown it and saved seeds in my climate, I'll be successful growing it too. For unusual things I sometimes cave and supplement elsewhere (I'm a seed catalogue junkie in the winter) and I faithfully buy seed spuds from a farm in Alberta. Sat Aug 08 18:32:49 -0700 2009 4771402 126891 Dubby Jo