Seed sources

[janemcgary]

Could members please post the names and websites of seed sources that they have found interesting and reliable? Most of the lists I used to depend on are no longer available, some because the sellers have retired, others because they will no longer ship to the USA. The great seed offerings on the new EU BX/SX are breaking my heart! I don't grow bulbs that need to be kept frost-free, so I rarely find anything I can order in the US exchanges, despite dutifully donating.

[CG100]

From the European perspective, do you ever view or are you a member of the SRGC forum? You can join without being an SRGC member.

You can read without joining and lots of European seed suppliers get mentioned over time, or just ask.

In S Africa, the "problem" will be in discovering species that are hardy significantly below freezing as their interpretation of hardy is usually not the same as yours or mine. There is also the problem of the actual source - seldom seen as seed, but one example - Boophone disticha has a large range and some areas have winter temperatures well below freezing, but are all plants, across the entire range the same?

I have spent a limited amount of time searching for seed suppliers in S America and never found any.

I have also asked around about seed suppliers from other sub-saharan countries and been told that even if anyone set up a business, they would struggle because so much of it has little or no reliable mail/shipping. (I was told that someone from RSA had set up in Botswana(? - bordering RSA), but failed due to an inability to reliably ship anything. (This is strange in some ways, as a few African countries are heavily involved in, perfectly legal, wildlife trade - birds, small mammals, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, fish etc. etc.)

[Too Many Plants!]

Could members please post the names and websites of seed sources that they have found interesting and reliable? Most of the lists I used to depend on are no longer available, some because the sellers have retired, others because they will no longer ship to the USA. The great seed offerings on the new EU BX/SX are breaking my heart! I don't grow bulbs that need to be kept frost-free, so I rarely find anything I can order in the US exchanges, despite dutifully donating.

Hi Jane, we're new(er) to the PBS, and the bulb scene, and have done two orders so far with Silver Hill. The first one (1.5 years ago) was a disaster because I chose SA post. After a while, and lots of communicating with Silver Hill, my friend and I were writing off our 50 species order. Then I think 10 or 11 months later our order miraculously showed up at USDA. We both wanted to place a second order and corresponded with SH, they said they now have a shipping option with FedEx for around $20. We did a second 50 species order, it went down without a hitch!

Hope this helps...

[Lee Poulsen]

From the European perspective, do you ever view or are you a member of the SRGC forum? You can join without being an SRGC member.

You can read without joining and lots of European seed suppliers get mentioned over time, or just ask.

In S Africa, the "problem" will be in discovering species that are hardy significantly below freezing as their interpretation of hardy is usually not the same as yours or mine. There is also the problem of the actual source - seldom seen as seed, but one example - Boophone disticha has a large range and some areas have winter temperatures well below freezing, but are all plants, across the entire range the same?

I have spent a limited amount of time searching for seed suppliers in S America and never found any.

I have also asked around about seed suppliers from other sub-saharan countries and been told that even if anyone set up a business, they would struggle because so much of it has little or no reliable mail/shipping. (I was told that someone from RSA had set up in Botswana(? - bordering RSA), but failed due to an inability to reliably ship anything. (This is strange in some ways, as a few African countries are heavily involved in, perfectly legal, wildlife trade - birds, small mammals, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, fish etc. etc.)

Two sources of seeds in South America are Mauro Peixoto of Brazilplants in Brazil and Chileflora in Chile.

I have ordered and received seeds from both that were what they were labeled as. The one problem with Chileflora is that they don't respond very well to email communication. So right when I think they didn't send my order, it suddenly shows up unannounced in the mail. The seeds quantities per packet are extremely generous.

I have visited Mauro and his wonderful location several times in the past. He is incredibly knowledgeable and a very nice person. And it's a sight to see his shade houses. One time I was there when his Worsleyas were in bloom and it kind of blew me away. He had one planting outside his shade houses in a large circular concrete cylinder (maybe a meter and a half in diameter) and every bulb was in flower. There must have been 50-60 flowers. He says there is something about Brazilian law that makes it such that he can't put import permit labels on the outside of the packets, so he just ships them directly to your address and you take your chances on them not being confiscated. So that is a problem. On the other hand, Chileflora says they will use your permits and labels. I send them PDFs and then they ship it directly to me without the permits anyway.

It's fun to look through their offerings. If you join Mauro's subscription, and he can really use the help, the seeds are discounted and you get a spreadsheet emailed to you every quarter with all his currently available species.

https://www.chileflora.com/Florachilena/FloraEnglish/ESeeds.htm?G_LANG=E
http://www.brazilplants.com/Seeds.html